There is not too much information out there regarding this system, and from what I can find it only states that the system is I supposing an improvement over PAAMS. I as wondering if you knew anymore concerning this, in particular what advantages other than the soft vertical launch system will this offer over other current system, whether it be AEGIS or PAAMS, and if so will it have the potential to be a world beating system??
Any information regarding this would be much appreciated

Thanks

 

 

Where? From whom? The MOD press releases you mean? These are weasel words and they don't get you far "there is general agreement" is not true whatsoever.

 

ASTER is not working, therefore the ship you talk about "in service" is actually sitting pretty with a solitary naval gun.. ASTER/PAAMS is a system that is based on MICA technology, there have been many threads here that have questioned the engineering and design logic that the system uses, the fact that its testing regime is SEVERELY limited speaks volumes.

 

And I can tell you one thing that you can probably source for yourself if you know anyone in the RN, they are NOT happy with what they have been delivered.

 

The T-45 is currently a pipe dream, if the missiles don't work to original specification, or are fudged into service with (as is the case now) minimal representative real-world threat testing then yes, you could say that the system is fundamentally flawed, the test program has been s-l-o-w and even against subsonic threats the missiles have ruptured and failed.

 

It MIGHT be the best in the world, but until you test this in a robust manner you have no right to say it is, or even that it is close, AEGIS has been tested, against a plethora of threats that PAAMS will never have even the vaguest capability to counter, they have far more missiles on board, if you need to launch 2 missiles at every target to have a good PK then work out just how long it would take with decoys to overwhelm a T-45.

 

Think about it, the program as it stands is a humiliation.

I should have made myself somewhat clearer, yes i realise that at the moment the thing sitting out there in the water is a billion pound target, what would have been better to say is that A is has some world beating features I.E SAMPSON, and some which have yet to be tested, overall the ship as an entire entity has the capabilities of being the best, and B some elements of it i believe show that very potential, but yes you are quite right the MoD needs to get their act together it is by no means as far as I am concerned the navies fault, other than they should lay the law down to the MoD instead of putting up with this .

 

As for testing, I recently watched a documentary on the ship, and they were still using non live fire testing, and i heard somewhere else that half of the ships potential weapon stations are not even fitted yet let alone equipped with missiles, i am under no illusion that this is far from satisfactory, and yes the system has experience a few "teething problems" but then again i would bet that it is safe to say most do, and i feel because of this we must take that into consideration, but as I previously stated once sorted out it has the potential to be the very best, and I?m sure once everything is sorted (hopefully by inserting a rather large boot, into a certain area in the head of the MoD?s body as it were) that the ship will become what it has been stated to be, for now I think we will personify it as the ugly duckling that hopefully will grow into the beautiful swan.

 

Personally I would rather the navy just had more Astute class submarines, at least they have got them right first time round

 

in all honesty I did, I think that many people would claim that the AEGIS is the better system purely because they have heard more about this particular system, i mean think about it a good percentage of media outlets are from the US so therefore are bound to have a positive view of US technology and military systems, the Type 45 on the other hand has not received anything like this kind of advertisement and publicity, much of what is said about the Type 45 on the internet i tend to feel is overly dismissive as yet again much of the internet is predominantly American, and not of what is said is neither entirely fair or accurate, it is true to say that the PAAMS system is unproven but on this basis alone it is unfair to dismiss the system as inferior to the AEGIS system, considering that there is much general agreement that with the addition of SAMPSON the Type 45 is the most advanced and most capable air defence destroyer in service, i am sure that with the same amount of attention of the AEGIS people would have more of an understanding about the Type 45 and its capabilities.

So when people say the AEGIS system as mounted on a DDG51 is superior because it has far more power, fixed arrays, BMD capability, longer ranged missiles, dual seeker missiles, overlapping layers of protection (SM-2 BlkIV, SM-2 BlkIII, ESSM, CIWS) are just cueing off the US media.

 

Also funny that the UK media is criticizing the T45 program as well.