(Europa) The Royal Navy

[Rob]

Sunday Times:

THE Royal Navy is considering creating a fleet of giant “mother” ships capable of taking a series of small fast fighting vessels to the world’s trouble spots.
Typically, one of the ships might carry four to six “daughter” vessels that would float from a submerged stern when the mother reached a war zone.



The design is among options for the creation of a “future surface combatant” (FSC) vessel for deployment in 12 years’ time, and is in keeping with the new high-tech direction outlined in Thursday’s defence white paper. Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, told the Commons he wanted forces to act “quickly, accurately and decisively” in future conflicts.

The mother-ship concept is regarded as the quickest way of transporting smaller vessels over large distances. Once at the scene of a conflict, it would be defended from terrorists or hostile forces by the daughter ships.

One navy source said such a concept would be extremely valuable for operations in the Gulf. “There’s always a threat from small fast boats and innocent-looking boats that carry bombs, like the one that badly damaged the USS Cole in Yemen. And there’s a particular threat from mines,” he said.

Linked by computers to the mother, the daughters would be equipped to fire missiles deep inland and to search for mines or submarines using remote-control underwater craft. Other daughter craft could be configured to put commandos ashore.

They could also be used to police the coastline as they would have the speed to chase drug smugglers’ speedboats.

The navy declines to discuss the project officially because, sources say, it does not want to detract from its priority of securing funding for its two new aircraft carriers.

However, an FSC project team has been formed under Captain Tom Cunningham, previously requirements manager for the new aircraft carrier project, and an announcement of his appointment is expected soon. Results of initial studies are expected next summer.

The prospect of a fleet of small, fast, specialist boats is one reason why senior navy officials are sanguine about expected cuts in the numbers of destroyers and frigates.

Hoon signalled the move in the Commons last week when he said: “Some of our older vessels contribute less well to the pattern of operations that we envisage, and some adjustments will be necessary.”

At the moment many of the navy’s vessels are too slow. In the Caribbean, for example, its anti-drug-running ships regularly fail to catch their quarry.

Last month the 21-year-old Type 42 destroyer HMS Manchester was again outrun by a speedboat carrying Colombian drugs and had to call on a Lynx helicopter to use the down wash from its rotor blades to make the crew abandon its cargo. More than £25m worth of drugs were recovered at sea, but the boat got away and was later found abandoned on a beach.

It is hoped that the new FSC class could replace the current offshore patrol ships, some of which were designed to be fishery protection vessels.

“The Americans are more concerned about the risks they take operating big expensive ships close to land because they designed them for open sea warfare,” said one Royal Navy source. “So are we, because we have many fewer ships.”

The US Navy is planning to build about 50 “littoral combat ships”, the first going into service in about four years’ time. Each will weigh about 500 tons, have a maximum speed of over 50 knots and cost about £60m.

The FSC is likely to be “modular” in design, changing equipment and roles as it rushes out to conflicts. It could carry a series of unmanned craft including helicopters, reconnaissance drones, mini surface boats and small submarines.

Although a “quick look” study contract was awarded by the Ministry of Defence to BMT Defence Services of Bath last March, the mother/daughter idea is just one of several FSC concepts being considered. The others involve much larger ships designed to be faster, stealthier and more adaptable than existing ships.

Most are using the pioneering work of the research vessel Triton, which was launched in 2000 by QinetiQ, the privatised successor to the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency.

A trimaran, it has proved the value of a ship that can go faster and save fuel by displacing less water. The US Navy has already bought two large catamaran freighters from Australia and is looking at trimaran designs.

BMT is also considering a pentamaran that would weigh about 9,000 tons and launch missiles and amphibious commando ships.

The defence ministry said: “FSC will be expected to deliver fighting power from the sea, countering the diverse and less predictable threats of the future, and therefore have adaptable response within a network-enabled environment.”