Frigates 'can't go to war' despite $1.4bn upgrade

[TarJak]

The current Australian government is blaming it's predecessor for a "nightmare" it has inherited:nope::

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22999086-12377,00.html

[Skybird]

Will that 1.4 bn upgrade make these frigates even more submersible? :D

[baggygreen]

As much of a supporter as i was of the previous govt, they did make some reallyu really bad calls... this was one of them.

If you had the option of more capable, much newer vessels or older vessels to be upgraded, which would you take? We had a chance to buy Kidd class destroyers, but the govt wanted to stick with these relics instead. One of their worst moves, defence-wise

[Kapitan]

Perry class firgates are now so antiquated im surprised a major country like australia still ahs them in service and america!!!!

[U49]

A colection, that I found on
http://www.wtj.com/archives/nelson/1805_10b.htm

quote:
-----------------------
TO VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH.
From Clarke and M'Arthur, vol. ii. p. 431.

5th October, 1805.

I have only two Frigates to watch them, and not one with the Fleet. I am most exceedingly anxious for more eyes, and hope the Admiralty are hastening them to me. The last Fleet was lost to me for want of Frigates; God forbid this should.

I am, &c., NELSON AND BRONTE.
------------------------

Frigates...?
Nobody has them, everybody needs them...

[Torpedo Fodder]

Perry class firgates are now so antiquated im surprised a major country like australia still ahs them in service and america!!!!
The Perrys are no more antiquated than any other 25-30 year old warship. In any case, the US Navy seems rather eager to get rid of all it's frigates and has no inclination to buy any more (unless you count LCS), so they've stricken or sold off all the short hull Perrys (including the Australian hulls), and the long hull Perrys should all be retired by 2010, with all the ships remaining in service having already been stripped of most of their armament. This rapid retirement is despite the fact that most of the Perrys currently in service have around 20 years of hull life left.

[Kapitan]

We have type 22's that were built roughly the same time still in service in the UK they are by far more capible than the perrys.

Seems the frigate is becoming a dying breed.

[Torpedo Fodder]

We have type 22's that were built roughly the same time still in service in the UK they are by far more capible than the perrys.
Yeah, forgot abot those. But I'd guess the reason the Perrys are stuck with such old equipment and light armament is because the US Navy stopped upgrading them after the '80s; They seem to have lost their entheusiasm for frigates after the cold war ended, because they proved totaly useless for any mission the US Navy undertook during the 90s. Just about all the upgrades since then have focussed on reducing operating costs.

Seems the frigate is becoming a dying breed.
That's because their size forces them to be very specialized warships, and for most navies, even the US navy, the money usually isn't there to field a large number of different specialized ships. That's why you have larger "jack of all trades" warships like the Arleigh Burkes, which can do air defence, land attack, and ASW (though in each case, not necessarly as well as a specialized ship). Canada will have our dozen Halifax-class ASW frigates for decades to come, but their conceptual sucessor would be a modular multi-role warship known as the Single Class Surface Combatant, which as the name suggest would be the only class of surface combatants we would field at that time.