Lack of mobility and power: the project of the Australian frigate Hunter faced difficulties

The Australian Department of Defense Panel of Experts on February 1 prepared a report on the status of the Hunter-class advanced frigate program, which points to the numerous problems and mistakes made in the design of the new ship.

As indicated in The Australian, one of the main reasons for the difficulties in implementing the program is a number of changes made by the military department to the project. They led to an increase in the dimensions of the frigate, the displacement of which increased from 8 to 10 thousand tons. At the same time, the power plant remained the same, which led to a lack of power, deterioration in mobility, a decrease in maximum speed, an increase in fuel consumption and operating costs.

So, equipping the CEFAR 2 radar ship, compatible with the Aegis system, required additional power supply. As a result, the crew will have to decide during the battle, in favor of what to make a choice: to increase the power of the drive or to fully realize the capabilities of the radar.

It will be impossible to simultaneously use the full potential of the engine and radar

- indicated in the publication.

Critics of the Hunter project note that it is based on the British Type 26 frigate, but so far not a single ship of this type has been built. The frigate needs to be improved and corrected, and five big changes made by the Australian Defense Ministry have exacerbated the identified problems.

Therefore, delays are expected in the delivery of Hunter. Initially, construction was scheduled to begin in 2020, later it was postponed to 2022. And now they are talking about 2024. The first ship is expected to reach full combat readiness only in 2034.

Comments

[Viktor Sergeev]

The main disadvantage is the complete uselessness, a waste of money. Australia would just sit and not croak. Instead of a frigate, it is better to buy coastal defense systems with the same money.

[Dart2027]

Quote: Victor Sergeev

Australia would just sit and not croak.

The head of Australia is the English queen. They say it's formal, but...

[Alex777]

When all the borders of a country are maritime, it cannot do without a fleet.
Another question is what kind of fleet Australia needs.
To build coastal defenses, in fact the continent,
Can you imagine how many people and rockets are needed there?

[Kesha1980]

it is better to buy coastal defense systems.

They have a Great Coral Reef instead of coast guard systems, but they want to play war games on foreign soil. The nation is young, but a little Anglo-Saxon. Therefore, they are interested in others. Is always.

[Uncle Vanya Susanin]

Australia is an extremely efficient country, everything is right and rational with them, not like in Putin's Rashka, but if something doesn't work out, well, for example, a frigate, or "green" energy, then this is different! need to understand!

[Thrifty]

uncle susanin, you would have wound in your "nezalezhnaya", and followed the broomstick, for the "rashka" because you can snatch a turnip into a turnip, a vegetable !!!

[Uncle Vanya Susanin]

Learn the word sarcasm, and in the independent, in the light of recent events, I can only ride on a tank, well, if my homeland sends!

[bk0010]

10000 tons - a frigate ... Stunned, so we'll get to a 30000-ton boat.

[Doccor18]

Quote: bk0010

10000 tons - frigate ... Stunned ...

Once a frigate was a powerful ship, three-masted, with 50-60 guns, yielding in power only to ships of the line. And even later, it surpassed destroyers, and only after WWII, destroyers, increasingly becoming the basis of fleets, gained weight and became multi-purpose, overtaking frigates in power ...

[Dimka75]

numerous problems and mistakes made in the design of the new ship.

it's called a compromise
Between the desired and possible characteristics of the ship
Ordinary situation

[Alex777]

Quote: Dimka75

it's called a compromise
Between the desired and possible characteristics of the ship
Ordinary situation

When the ship, initially, not only does not have a 20-30% reserve in terms of power, but there is a noticeable lack of it, this, at a minimum, means that the ship has no modernization potential.

[tralflot1832]

I specially found an article in the original. How journalists got the secret report of the Navy on this project is a separate topic. Indeed, it is, as in the article on VO .. The program has risen in price from 35 billion Australian dollars to 45 billion. The series should be of 9 ships. Comments under the article just one to one like ours. The rise in the cost of projects is our disease that cannot be treated. There are no engineers who can read the drawings, others say that they exist. We cannot build, we buy in the original from the British. who doesn’t scold the government. And the cherry on the cake. One person left a comment. What do you want from our Defense Ministry, if when I served it couldn’t calculate the consumption of toilet paper in the army, and I got one small sheet for a day. Australia also has us all gone.

[alone]

Quote: tralflot1832

we are all gone

Well, everyone has them..

Quote: tralflot1832

The program has risen in price from 35 billion Australian dollars to 45 billion. The series should be from 9 ships.

Everyone wants to eat .. Australia is no exception ..

[Thrifty]

There, without options, either they create a fleet, or the Chinese will be the full masters of Australia's terrorist waters!

[Cat Alexandrovich]

So Yes. Own fleet ... And then China! Here is the current first korap in 12 years ... Wouldn't it be a bit late then?

[Doccor18]

Quote: Cat Alexandrovich

Wouldn't it be too late then?

Just right. They are all preparing for the beginning of the thirties, where the American frigates with landing ships will be in time, and Virginia and Burks are still riveted with a dozen or one and a half ...

[Cat Alexandrovich]

And the Chinese will be picking their little noses all this time!

[Doccor18]

Wherever there, 055's also cut a dozen. Cold War 2.0...

[TermNachTer]

The eternal disease of all admirals: to cram the maximum of weapons into the minimum displacement - it turned out, as usual, very badly. The British also have nothing to brag about, their "Dragons" came out too, so-so and expensive. Of the 12 planned, only six were built.

[dzvero]

The eternal disease of all admirals: to cram the maximum of weapons into the minimum displacement - it turned out, as usual, very badly.

You are right - only bottom mines fully comply with this criterion Everything else is a compromise with something, something, someone with the result "as always" and very rarely "as they wanted."

[impostor]

If you try a large nuclear power plant and place a railgun, then it may well remain for Aegis, although the displacement may change to a battleship with a towed barge ... a caravan of barges ... well, maneuverability is minus, but cooler than an iron and the water world will shudder

[faterdom]

"Gunthers" are made by the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant.
Everything else is counterfeit.

[Skipper]

Go nuts they have frigates up to 10 thousand tons. With such approaches, TARKR Peter the Great and Admiral Nakhimov, according to their gradations, will be corvettes.

[Skipper]

Quote: bk0010

10000 tons - a frigate ... Stunned, so we'll get to a 30000-ton boat.

Yes ... and TARKR Peter the Great and Admiral Nakhimov with such approaches they will call corvettes.