Todjaeger said:
As I understood it, a form of CIWS was to be added, with space and weight reserved for that purpose, separate from the 2nd VLS. I believe the discussion was on which CIWS to go with, the 20mm Phalanx, a system like the 30mm Goalkeeper, or RAM. Given the operational availability issues the US has had with their Phalanx systems, and the question on whether a 20mm system would be effective engaging antiship missles, I thought RAM was chosen.
If the Anzac had the capacity for more SM-2, I'd say that would make sense, but 8 isn't all that much. Particularly when 2-3 might be fired to guarantee kills. In order to accomplish the missle arrangement you mention, a total of 30 VLS cells would need to be added, there is only room for 8.
From the info I have from Jane's, the range on a SM-1 Standard was out to 46km, and the range on the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow was only 14.6km. What's the approximate range for ESSM?
There is quite a bit of "space and weight" available on the ANZAC's for additional weapons etc. An early design I saw included the 2x 4 Harpoon canisters on the No 2 deck (behind the bridge) which allowed an additional Mk 41 VLS system to be mounted foward of the bridge but before the Mk 45 Mod 2. Giving a total (potential) of 24x cells in 3x Mk 41 VLS's per ship.
SM-2 might have been handy then with 16x cells devoted to SM-2 and 8x devoted to "quad" ESSM's.
As to the CIWS issue, as I understand it, Phalanx could be integrated quite quickly (a matter of hours if not days) if necessary as the major parts required (baseplate etc) are already installed. The fact that this has never been done though even on numerous operational deployments, shows A) how confident RAN must be in ESSM and B) the sort of confidence it has in Phalanx, as RAN has plenty of Phalanx systems it COULD deploy aboard an ANZAC frigate if it wanted to.
As to the ASMD upgrade a "2nd layer" "very short ranged air defence" (VSRAD) system was to be included under the original "2nd channel of fire" proposal I mentioned earlier. No definite system was officially announced by Government or RAN, but it was widely reported within Australian Defence and Defence Industry circles that the "Mistral" missile (in either SIMBAD or SADRAL form) was the likely system.
Now that this "2nd channel of fire" capability is to be greatly exceeded by the 3D radar with it's "multiple channels of fire" capability, RAN is reportedly now re-assessing whether it needs the 2nd VSRAD capability anymore.
The thinking behind this is that since the new radar/combat system combo can control numerous missiles simultaneously, can ESSM do the job all by itself and given that ESSM is far more capable than RAM, Mistral or any other such system, would this then be sufficient for RAN's total ASMD needs???
I can't provide a quoted source for the range of ESSM, but it is often stated in articles that ESSM has a similar, if not greater range the SM-1. To get to the ESSM standard, the Sea Sparrow missile was (amongst other things) modified with a significantly larger rocket motor, hence the claims of it's greater range...