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Originally Posted by Schone23666
Only three destroyers? Sheesh. Hell, I would think destroyers would be almost the backbone/workhorse of any naval fleet interested in projecting offensive power. Ditto for carriers, especially. I don't really understand the argument AGAINST carriers because it's pretty obvious just the amount of tactical flexibility and firepower you gain from that, though of course it comes at the price of cost, high maintenance, a rather large amount of personnel (at least a thousand plus per carrier), logistics, etc.
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The idea amongst the higher-ups is that two air warfare destroyers (AWD) are at sea at any one time while the third is undergoing any maintenance. This has been the situation since at least the mid-1980s. Before then we had two destroyer squadrons with I think at total of 5-7 destroyers (3 x missile/gun and the rest pure gun platforms).
We have basically two fleets, one for the west coast and one for the east coast though the reality is most assets are based in the east. One AWD per fleet is understrength in my opinion. I'd argue for at least two per fleet with perhaps one or two in maintenance (for a total of 5-6) like we had in the 1970s.
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Originally Posted by Schone23666
At least the Canberra helicopter carriers might account for something if someone can persuade the RAN they actually SHOULD have VTOL aircraft allotted to them. Hell, the U.S. Navy has done pretty well with the aircraft they've had (for the most part).
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The RAN doesn't need convincing, they'd be very happy to have even just one aircraft carrier of modest size - it's the government and the Department of Defence that thinks we either don't need any or they are too expensive to justify.
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Originally Posted by Webstral
I’m not a Navy guy, but my limited understanding of the field is that frigates are the real workhorses of most modern navies. Modern frigates are large and capable when compared to WW2 era ships of the same classification—so much so that some frigates essentially are destroyers in all but name. Again, though, I’m no Navy guy...
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Quite so. The Australian navy might only have three destroyers but we have maintained a fleet of approximately 7+ frigates for several decades and at the moment we field 12.
In fact the new AWD is a modified version of the Spanish Álvaro de Bazán class frigate - the hull is large enough, all we're basically doing is adding more weapons and systems to bring the classification up to 'destroyer'.