No body is happy with the current state of the NS but there is unlikely in the short term to be enough trained crew to enable 5-6 vessels to remain operational. Given also that the fleet replacement plans have failed to build replacements for the Eithne, Orla & Ciara these vessels should now be retire as they are all over 35 years. Even if we launched a "Tender" process now it would be at least 2024 before the first vessel would arrive. IMHO it would now be better to wait for the outcome of the Defence Review before we commit to a new fleet make-up which will stay with us 30 more years!
This may seem harsh to reduce to a 6 ship NS but it is better now to take a step back and decide what the future NS is going to be in the long term. Remember the Peacocks were only a gap filler purchase as the 3 sister ships of the Eithne were never built. So maybe out of the Defence Review would come a capability gap that again would see the need for 4 Eithne type vessels. IMHO it would be much wiser now to spend any available budget on giving the P60 class addition capabilities. They were designed to carry 3 TEU containers so there is the possibility to add containerised mission systems like MCM. Maybe even the 3rd RIB position could be modified to take a USV like the Atlas ARCIMS.
If recruitment does improve and more crews are available then we could always work the P60 class harder. The RN River class are around 300 days per year at sea, our vessels tend to spend 220 days at sea. So as additional crew becomes availalbe we could move to first "3 crew/ 2 ship", and then to "2 crew per ship" to increase the total days at sea per year. The logic is that it is better to train new sailors on vessels that will be in service for decade rather than on vessels which in a year or two will be retired.
While increasing the operational tempo of the P60 class would tend to shorten their operational life span it would not be so critical.
This may seem harsh to reduce to a 6 ship NS but it is better now to take a step back and decide what the future NS is going to be in the long term. Remember the Peacocks were only a gap filler purchase as the 3 sister ships of the Eithne were never built. So maybe out of the Defence Review would come a capability gap that again would see the need for 4 Eithne type vessels. IMHO it would be much wiser now to spend any available budget on giving the P60 class addition capabilities. They were designed to carry 3 TEU containers so there is the possibility to add containerised mission systems like MCM. Maybe even the 3rd RIB position could be modified to take a USV like the Atlas ARCIMS.
If recruitment does improve and more crews are available then we could always work the P60 class harder. The RN River class are around 300 days per year at sea, our vessels tend to spend 220 days at sea. So as additional crew becomes availalbe we could move to first "3 crew/ 2 ship", and then to "2 crew per ship" to increase the total days at sea per year. The logic is that it is better to train new sailors on vessels that will be in service for decade rather than on vessels which in a year or two will be retired.
While increasing the operational tempo of the P60 class would tend to shorten their operational life span it would not be so critical.
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