I think Volk means for the vessels basic hull and machinery without further systems. What I do remember was that a third vessel for the RNZN to replace F421 was to come in at about NZ$350m iirc. The $1.3B for the RNZN ships should also been seen through the lens of generating around $800m in local NZ industrial activity through out the project.
Yes that seems about right, I remember that $750m was put away for a future frigate/frigates in the mid 90's. unfortunately the following government brought a pile of junk later with some of it.
Ha Ha! not referring to project 'protector' by any chance?
Interesting , as it appears that Endeavour's life has been pushed out a year to 2019. makes a lot of sense.
Well spotted! Sensible and predictable, but I had failed to notice the shift.
Yes , considering the capability loss we will have without her in the mean time! Any news on the RFI for the litoral support vessel?
Would make for a good corvette.
BZ Roger. Best branch in the Navy too, not that I'm biased. Be good to see more men wearing the ta moko and the women wearing theirs.
Interesting how much mileage some of these traditions have had. I had to get the COs permission to get married, not that long ago, while serving in the UK. Probably wouldn't have still been an issue in NZ I expect.
Very interesting. It is slightly smaller than what some of the Korean sites were speculating last year but again bigger than the FFX-II Daegu Class.
That's why I thought it's make a good corvette sans the ABM gear. Bit small for a modern day frigate but if you changed out the 5 in gun for a 76mm and changed the ABM radars for something less it would make an ideal OPV replacement, or as a corvette capability between OPVs and frigates.
In a way that is exactly what the 2800 tonne FFX-II Daegu is and even that keeps the big 5er up front. The Batch III has a 15m beam which is wider than the Perry's and around the same length as the OHP Batch one. I guess the possibility is there to have a long hull variant per the Perry's viz a FFX-IIIa? These new builds coming in at NZ$560m a unit from a budget of $3.35B for the six ships. Seems they have gone for a methodical development of the Daegu's. Your right about it being a tad on the small size - I would think for us that 4000+ tonne - 130m+ for a modern frigate would be the minimum size of any replacement. Anyway another suspect for the Anzac Class replacement investigation list along with the KDX-IIa, Type 26, FREMM et al.
Tattoos are one thing but facial tattoos are something else entirely. I'm not so sure I agree about allowing this, but that's the way the world is turning so who am I to hold it back.