Any mission like fishery patrol, monitoring the environment (pollution), littoral patrols near less than friendly nations, personnel evacuations, etc. ought to involve the prudence of having a self-defense capability. Good chance their TOE doesn't involve any St. Christopher medallions because that is voodoo in 2022, but it ought to involve .50 cal's as a minimum. Geez, when I rent a motorboat from Welfare & Rec at NAS I take my CCW handgun. It's 2022 and 2023 isn't looking any better. Prudence, the noun, not the proper noun.
Aside: Can we get Counter-Admiral as a naval rank too? Sounds like a great title for a flag rank whose job it is to disagree with the received wisdom - kind of a formalized 10th Man (with staff) in the Pentagon.
Given that it's Rear Admiral equivalent, maybe USN just needs to find Rear Admirals willing to actually kick some rears where the heads refuse to function. Now where to find them...
"but what I'd like to do is spend a few drinks with a marine architect and the ship's blueprints to see what "white space" there would be to play with in this design." If you can get the ship's drawings (even some simple-minded deck layouts) and a preliminary weight report, count me in. I'd like to think that my 40 years as a navarch could be somewhat useful.
And to the point, yes, this design appears as if it could inform / be a better basis for / actually just be an actually more useful Ship for Littoral Combat than any such LCS that a certain globe spanning oceanically-dependent superpower might have splashed down the ways in recent decades - more standoffish, more droney, more handy, less hull-cracky, and those azipods, if they are as they appear commercial units, would likely not suddenly develop bearing or other drivetrain issues. And if they did you just plug in a new one.
I like the thin well deck. Would be a cool hybrid for what the USMC wants from the LAW without the ability to beach it. Basically just RHIBs and CRRCs. Could also be a mothership for USVs, tow fuel blivets to beach FARPS, strap on NSMs. One helo spot for log runs, refueling ASW birds, CASEVAC, or picking up small recon teams. I want 50.
An interesting beast, but it seems an answer in search of a problem. It does not appear to be large enough to carry enough equipment and supplies for disaster relief. It should probably belong to the Portuguese equivalent of NOAA. As a research ship, it could do lots of extremely useful work.
As to it being unarmed, I wonder if there are any circular groups of threaded holes in the deck, the holes filled with set screws to keep out corrosion inducing water, with electrical junction boxes nearby. In case something needed to be bolted to the deck, at some future point.
At the Int'l Festival of the Sea circa 2001 in Portsmouth, UK, hands down the ship with the most utility for multi-domain involvement in international affairs was an Echo (?) Class oceanographic ship. Yes, the brand new DDG-81 was a superior warship, but for the vast array of missions asked of an Echo Class...and at minimal cost...the USN ought to expand its thoughts on asymmetry in the littorals. Former CO, DDG 81
Any mission like fishery patrol, monitoring the environment (pollution), littoral patrols near less than friendly nations, personnel evacuations, etc. ought to involve the prudence of having a self-defense capability. Good chance their TOE doesn't involve any St. Christopher medallions because that is voodoo in 2022, but it ought to involve .50 cal's as a minimum. Geez, when I rent a motorboat from Welfare & Rec at NAS I take my CCW handgun. It's 2022 and 2023 isn't looking any better. Prudence, the noun, not the proper noun.
Aside: Can we get Counter-Admiral as a naval rank too? Sounds like a great title for a flag rank whose job it is to disagree with the received wisdom - kind of a formalized 10th Man (with staff) in the Pentagon.
Given that it's Rear Admiral equivalent, maybe USN just needs to find Rear Admirals willing to actually kick some rears where the heads refuse to function. Now where to find them...
"but what I'd like to do is spend a few drinks with a marine architect and the ship's blueprints to see what "white space" there would be to play with in this design." If you can get the ship's drawings (even some simple-minded deck layouts) and a preliminary weight report, count me in. I'd like to think that my 40 years as a navarch could be somewhat useful.
And to the point, yes, this design appears as if it could inform / be a better basis for / actually just be an actually more useful Ship for Littoral Combat than any such LCS that a certain globe spanning oceanically-dependent superpower might have splashed down the ways in recent decades - more standoffish, more droney, more handy, less hull-cracky, and those azipods, if they are as they appear commercial units, would likely not suddenly develop bearing or other drivetrain issues. And if they did you just plug in a new one.
I like the thin well deck. Would be a cool hybrid for what the USMC wants from the LAW without the ability to beach it. Basically just RHIBs and CRRCs. Could also be a mothership for USVs, tow fuel blivets to beach FARPS, strap on NSMs. One helo spot for log runs, refueling ASW birds, CASEVAC, or picking up small recon teams. I want 50.
An interesting beast, but it seems an answer in search of a problem. It does not appear to be large enough to carry enough equipment and supplies for disaster relief. It should probably belong to the Portuguese equivalent of NOAA. As a research ship, it could do lots of extremely useful work.
As to it being unarmed, I wonder if there are any circular groups of threaded holes in the deck, the holes filled with set screws to keep out corrosion inducing water, with electrical junction boxes nearby. In case something needed to be bolted to the deck, at some future point.
At the Int'l Festival of the Sea circa 2001 in Portsmouth, UK, hands down the ship with the most utility for multi-domain involvement in international affairs was an Echo (?) Class oceanographic ship. Yes, the brand new DDG-81 was a superior warship, but for the vast array of missions asked of an Echo Class...and at minimal cost...the USN ought to expand its thoughts on asymmetry in the littorals. Former CO, DDG 81
To the naysayers sure to comment...knowing what's below the surface and 'fingerprinting' the electronic spectrum...is half the battle close to shore.