Warsaw Pact Britain - naval strategy and other considerations

[Martes]

@RP1 drew up a Royal Navy Kresta-inspired ship quite a few years ago, which may be of interest to you:

That's the easy solution, and I did think about it as well - replace the guns with Sea Wolf and be done with it, maybe polish the hull model a bit.

Indeed an option, but it doesn't answer the underlying question - would the navy need such ship at all, if it is possible to build the larger Kara/T84 in sufficient numbers, because this ship is not much smaller and not that cheaper, and requires to maintain two types of ships with very close mission profiles.

So the choice is between Kara/T84 batch 2 (with different AA missile arrangement) or a separate AAW escort ship with reduced ASW component.

 

[Martes]

Here is something (a hangar-equipped variant of the T82?) that is also suspiciously Kresta-looking:


This even says, leave the RPK launchers where they are (i.e. there is Ikara as ASW capability that has to be mirrored). And a cut forecastle. And a combined funnel-mast. Hm.

Still doesn't answer the question of why design a separate type ITTL, though.

 

[Martes]

In any case, here is a Kara/Type84 variant with 1 Sea Dart and 8 Sea Wolf/SA-N-9 containers (6x8 in cluster aft, one larger per each side in place of old SA-N-4 mounts, I will probably have to replace those at some point) with corresponding trackers/lluminators.

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[Martes]

Potentially, there is a third variant that can be done on the same hull - a specialized ASW ship, with 2-helicopter hangar aft, and Sea Wolf forward, and that could be a nice replacement for IRL Type 22.

The large frigate that is based on a mix between project 1155 and a blown-up Type 23 then slides into the 80's by the timeline and would feature the first regular multi-cell VLS.

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Another question I wanted to address here.

The Soviets had in their catalog a certain SA-N-7, aka naval Buk. Medium-range anti-air missile. There is no direct equivalent in the British inventory, not that I know of. Would RN be interested in such system? And if yes, rail launched early or VLS late 80's?