3 New Navy Vessels for Irish Naval Service

In theory, they were tactical nukes, about 2 warheads, when this was the case. The intention of the ship was to attack carrier battle groups, with swarms of anti ship missiles, overloading the CBGs air defences. In it's recent role, it was acting as a command platform at sea as well as an air defence shield for the amphibious operation. For this reason the experts in the area have dismissed the rumours. Its the old "fitted for, but not with" situation.

Today, she is the Black Sea's newest diving reef. Looking back to Kursk, it took an international salvage team to raise the remains of that boat to the surface so the reactor could be safely disposed of(and the Russian Official lie exposed). Russia lacks the capacity to raise Moskva on her own. Ukraine already has an incomplete hull sitting in one of their shipyards to use for intel, so I imagine what we will see shortly is the Russian Navy quietly depth charging what remains on the bottom, so the west cannot learn what the exact weakness was that led to her rapid sinking.

The incident demonstrates however the equal importance of active CIWS when operating without an air defence picket in an active warzone, and the even greater importance of good damage control.

It appears from photos that all lifeboats and even the motor launches got away, in spite of what seems to have been a huge explosion and a catastrophic fire in the immediate aftermath.

As for a relic of the true cross. It is surprising that the biggest con to be puled on so many noblemen returning from the crusades, is still being pulled in the 21st century. Timber doesn't last 2000 years once cut, no matter how you preserve it.

It depends on the tender. It scores bids based on various metrics, which are well detailed from the outset. Price is a factor, but not sometimes its maximum score is only slightly higher than other factors such as lead time etc. We will have a budget, and the bidders will be expected to demonstrate the best design for the requirement within that budget.

While the NS may have favoured options, the process is usually transparent enough so that everyone gets a fair crack of the whip. Nothing stopping a tender to be written so it rules out certain yards or designs. We haven't the capability to design the ship ourselves even when we did, we did it assisted by outside experts. We tell the design house what we want, they come up with a design that may fulfil all our requirements. Sometimes they show us similar ships on which a design may be based. These days it's mostly a variation of an off the shelf design, instead of something straight from a blank sheet.

I believe the NS have already had detailed looks at the NZ MRV, Canterbury, as well as a number of other Naval vessels.

Ancientmariner is one of a few I know of that supervised the design and construction of Naval vessels.

The main difference today though is usually we are looking for something others have already looked for. Back in the 70s and 80s nobody was building Ocean Going patrol vessels in Europe. In the US, the Coast Guard were building cutters based on Frigate or Corvette designs. We had to come up with something better suited to our needs.

Once we did it, others followed. Today there are numerous design houses offering OPVs in every size.

The MRV story is new on the block. NZ has learnt many lessons with their ship, and I'm sure those lessons will be incorporated into our request for tender. Ireland started looking at the concept almost 2 decades ago now, but unfortunately there was a recession in between. At the time a German design house also offered a type to NZ, unsuccessfully, based on the MEKO200 frigate. Ireland considered a variant of this type as a potential MRV candidate back then. Some images of this ship are still on the web (and featured in an article in An Cosantoir), but many priorities have changed since then.

Whatever it is, it will need to be future proofed for up to 4 decades in service, probably worldwide. People not yet born could end up being the ships captain someday.

No saying its part of an cross just to be clear.

Which also works great.

Did it agree it wasn't part of a cross.. I stated that it was infact possible for timber to survive for 2000 years

I would only do that if I was wrong.

Getting back to ship building and design requirements. if you go for a full investigative journey it will include a hull model design to be tank tested for speeds and behaviour with a variety of appendages such as bilge keels, rudders, etc. Picking the yard is critical and should be based on competence and track record. Relying on price solely is restrictive. The key pathway for a 2 year or more project is a yard that passes viability tests and has done it before. When the ship outfit, including military equipment is identified it is usual to appoint the main military ship systems co-ordinators as the technical managers for all installations to minimise EMI and EMC problems. There is also the need to provide the basket of money and costs as not all expenditure will be in Euro. Establishing the minimum operational draft can be problematic as the yard will want that as low as possible for measured mile speed trials. On that day speeds achieved may never be seen again and certainly not when fully loaded.

Having built 6 OPV's, since Eithne, there must be hard core knowledge in the Naval Service on ship construction. we wish them well.

You and I think that is an obvious list of parameters to be met. The CS gurus worked on built in subsidies that provided a discount to the Yard that in turn passed it on to Eire Government. I would NEVER allow a ship to deliberately ground twice a day for the duration of a fit out.

Positive leadership from the front is essential and must preclude IFFY building conditions.

Not at all. While the major structural assembly may not be possible, there would be nothing impossible about fitting out the vessel locally, using the heavy engineering equipment that still exists in Rushbrooke. The recent Refits carried out on L.E. Roisin and currently to L.E Niamh are quite considerable, and not unlike fitting out a new vessel. However the logistics of bringing a bare hull to Cork Harbour may make it cost prohibitive, compared to being completed at a single location.

If you look at the UK, they recently built two carriers, in sections in a number of Yards around the UK, and did final assembly in Rosyth. This was done mostly to support the UK shipbuilding Industry, and may have been tied to the Scottish Independence vote.

Not impossible by any account though. It also greatly reduces the amount of travel expense incurred by the Navy team supervising construction.

We are mad not to include some local offset in any deal. There are numerous businesses in the maritime industry based in Ireland who would jump at the chance to provide their services. For example NMCI could commence an apprenticeship program for Naval Architects, Welders Machinists and the countless other trades found in shipbuilding. My nephew is currently in Tralee on Block release from his machinist apprenticeship with a Cork based company. Its in Tralee purely because of Liebherr in Killarney.

Eithne would be a great flagship for a war lord especially if he got the hanger and flight deck operational again

Its a better end than some tribal warlord using them as floating HQ for their Terrorism/Piracy operations.

Of all the former NS ships that went to the breaker, none of them came back to haunt the service after.

Setanta? Breakers yard

Ferdia? Nothng heard once her lease ended

Grainne, Fola, Banba? All towed away to Spain on a weekend, mostly Mahogany.

Macha, Maeve & Cliona? Scrapped locally, their weapons now decorate parts of Haulbowline. Their Helm and Engine room telegraph from one can be found decorating certain pubs nearby.

Helga/Muirchu? Sunk while on the way to be scrapped.

It's the better solution for everyone.

Imagine after selling the home you grew up in, where you brought your new spouse, where you raised your children, & had happy memories in, you find out squatters take over, and use it as a place to sell drugs to the neighbourhood and carry out beatings of those who disagreed with them. Meanwhile the house falls in to ruin, one by one the windows are broken, the roof starts to cave in until eventually it is declared derelict, all the occupants are arrested after a high profile drug related murder takes place inside, after which it gets boarded up, and eventually demolished to make way for a wider bus lane.

Wouldn't you prefer if it had been demolished instead the day you left?

I'm a civil servant.

I agree if that can be successfully concluded. There is an overall reluctance by some countries to accept naval vessels for scrapping because of hidden environmental hazards such as PCB's, Asbestos, various liquids. There are international EPA type rules for crapping or sinking former naval vessels, which requires removal of known hazards to an agreed standard. Scrapping at home is less stringent than getting it done in another fussy country. The Brits might take the Peacocks, as they built them, and we could sink the Eithne to establish gunnery capability of the 76mm's, all to be done at not less than 4 miles to test tracking and range finding.