Model of DK Brown's "Utility Minehunter" and Vosper's shortened export Sandown

[TinWing]

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66324.html

Compare to the drawings on page 141 of "Rebuilding the Royal Navy." It's easy to spot the 3 standard 20(?) foot containers containing the diesel generators, but the single transverse container behind the bridge contains the control room. In the book, an official MOD artist's illustration shows yet another container behind the bridge.

Having witnessed an actual Sandown class hold position and maneuver with those clever Voith Schneider "egg beater" props, the Royal Navy probably made the right call. I've never read about whether the RN had the same vibration issues with Voith props that the USN had with a similar installation on the MHC-51 Osprey class?

Here's a link to a model of a 44 meter version of the Sandown that Vosper Thornycroft was trying to promote when the RN's own first Sandown was nearing completion. Take notice of the conventional props: https://www.the-saleroom.com/it-it/auction-catalogues/charles-miller-ltd/catalogue-id-srcharl10000/lot-491b8077-72d0-47a9-8e1a-a3f7007a830d
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/lot-images.atgmedia.com/SR/35440/2905398/257-201492917249_original.jpg

 

[Yellow Palace]

Here's a link to a model of a 44 meter version of the Sandown that Vosper Thornycroft was trying to promote when the RN's own first Sandown was nearing completion. Take notice of the conventional props: https://www.the-saleroom.com/it-it/auction-catalogues/charles-miller-ltd/catalogue-id-srcharl10000/lot-491b8077-72d0-47a9-8e1a-a3f7007a830d
https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/lot-images.atgmedia.com/SR/35440/2905398/257-201492917249_original.jpg

The baby Sandown seems to have a lot of Hunt in it - the sweep deck in particular, no doubt in part because the ship seems to be fitted as a sweeper as well as a hunter. The reduced size, conventional props and hull mounted sonar also suggest that a much cheaper ship was seen as necessary for export.

 

[Hood]

By chance I found this interesting Yarrow GRP-hulled MCMV project which dates from 1988, which puts it in a similar timeframe to the Sandown class.
I don't know if it was a competitor to Sandown or entirely export motivated, the 1988 Gulf War having spurred deep interest in MCMVs with Western and Middle Eastern navies.

 

[Foo Fighter]

What 1988 gulf war?

 

[skyrider]

What 1988 gulf war?

The Tanker war of 87/88?

 

[Arjen]

What 1988 gulf war?

The original Gulf War: Iran Iraq War from 1980 - 1988.

The conflict has been compared to World War I in terms of the tactics used, including large-scale trench warfare with barbed wire stretched across fortified defensive lines, manned machine guns posts, bayonet charges, Iranian human wave attacks, extensive use of chemical weapons by Iraq, and, later, deliberate attacks on civilian targets.

An estimated 500,000 Iraqi and Iranian soldiers died, in addition to a smaller number of civilians. The end of the war resulted in neither reparations nor border changes.

By the number of casualties, the worst of the Gulf Wars.

 

[Foo Fighter]

Not aware that conflict had the moniker "Gulf war". More widely known as the Iran/Iraq war.

 

[Arjen]

From the wikipedia entry:

The Iran–Iraq War was originally referred to as the Gulf War until the Persian Gulf War of 1990 and 1991, after which it was known as the First Persian Gulf War. The Iraq–Kuwait conflict, which was known as the Second Persian Gulf War, eventually became known simply as the Gulf War. The Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 has been called the Second Persian Gulf War

My parents had a friend who was the captain of a salvage tug in the Persian Gulf at the time. He had some very interesting stories to tell, so I took an interest.
It is a wry thing to note that this war has slipped as far from memory as it has - more than half a million dead, after all - but that's just the way the world is, I guess.