Been coming across a lot of stuff on line about the new Philippines acquisition, the BRP Tarlac.
Whats interesting about this one is the price, seems to be about $44m excluding weapons or much of a Radar/sensor suite, but it still looks amazing value.
It's based on the Indonesian Makasser class LPD, and if the NS were looking for something more MRV than EPV, it would seem like a good fit, can embark 500 troops and loads of Veh's, and has space on deck for 2+1 Helicopters. In addition I think it can also be fitted out as a Hospital ship in double quick time, which might make it more saleable to Joe Taxpayer.
On the down side, I'm not sure if it'd be suitable for North Atlantic conditions, and speedwise, it's a bit underpowered/slow compared to the rest of the fleet.
Also the crew size is about 120, so twice that of the new builds, but for a ship that size, its hardly surprising.
Whats interesting about this one is the price, seems to be about $44m excluding weapons or much of a Radar/sensor suite, but it still looks amazing value.
It's based on the Indonesian Makasser class LPD, and if the NS were looking for something more MRV than EPV, it would seem like a good fit, can embark 500 troops and loads of Veh's, and has space on deck for 2+1 Helicopters. In addition I think it can also be fitted out as a Hospital ship in double quick time, which might make it more saleable to Joe Taxpayer.
On the down side, I'm not sure if it'd be suitable for North Atlantic conditions, and speedwise, it's a bit underpowered/slow compared to the rest of the fleet.
Also the crew size is about 120, so twice that of the new builds, but for a ship that size, its hardly surprising.
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