Last decade, we castrated our FFG-7 Class frigates and then complained they had nothing to contribute to the fight. We let them rot - then sold the best and sink the rest.
So many contrary opinions poo-poo'd away, and spin sold as truth. Well facts speak for themselves.
We've covered what the Australians did with their OHP's before - and here is another chance.
Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Port Hueneme in Port Hueneme, Calif., announced July 14, it has successfully designed and integrated a fire control system upgrade aboard Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Sydney.What makes the US Navy look worse - a SM-2 on a fully functional and maintainable MK-13, or the VLS cluster forward?
The system upgrade completes a four-year effort by the Royal Australian Navy to launch standard missiles from Adelaide-class ships.
NSWC Port Hueneme personnel were responsible for the design, development, integration and test of the software upgrade to the weapons control processor of the Mk 92 Fire Control System, which is a key element in the system that provides the new capability to launch SM-2 missiles from a Royal Australian Navy frigate Mk 13 launcher.
Too late now - but still worth reminding "them" that is was a moment of failure not to join the Australians, and probably other OHP users that would have joined a US move, in giving a solid ship a new lease on life.
Oh, and before someone chirps about cost - review economies of scale and then sit down and ponder. Yes, the program had some problems - but they worked out just fine as the evolutionary usually does.
Let's say in an alternative universe that we decided to join the Australian effort back in the late-90s. HMAS SYDNEY was commissioned in 1983. Even though we just transferred the MCINERNEY (commissioned in 1979) to Pakistan - let us assume that somewhere in the past decade, sanity compromised with the Transformationalists and agreed to buy time by joining in our version of the FFG Upgrade.
Just so no one can claim we're messing with "unrealistic numbers," let's say we decided to convert all OHP Class frigates built after 1984 to the FFG Upgrade standard.
What would that gain us? My quick counting would give us ~18 Frigates able to launch SM-2 and Harpoon through the MK-13. ESSM through the MK-41 VLS 8-pack and other updated systems as well.
Assume a 30-yr average life - that would keep that superior warfighting capability in the fleet from 2014-2019. By then perhaps someone with enough pixie dust would have found a way to make LCS useful. Maybe. Instead - we have what we have now.
No, you can't change bad decisions of the past, but you can use the example of those mistakes to inform future decisions.
Hat tip Mike.
