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Escorts - a useful term? Why not say 'frigates and destroyers'?

All well and good, but why post about it on an Army website (as opposed to a naval one), and then get uppity because you’ve failed to recognize that 99.99% of squaddies, ex-squaddies, crabs, ex-crabs and possibly some matelots and ex-matelots couldn’t give a rat’s arse whether a particular kind or kinds of ship are called escorts, frigates, destroyers or for that matter, Jennifer or Sally.

Smite the deserving indeed!

Some people have got no sense of humour. The point was about MOD/RN usage of a term which had the potential to give a distorted view of things. You may also have noted the title of this forum.

You forgot to throw the sloop class of war canoe into the discussion, a good way to look at the differing capabilities, watch the Yangtze incident film where RN ships perform for the camera

Not really as we do not have them anymore. My complaint is dumbing down and missing the chance to explain.

Escort is a duty a warship is given. I was with 29th (Later 22nd) Escort Group which consisted of four ships one Daring class and three frigates, A/s and AA. There were I think three, maybe four such escort groups in the Far East at the time and on occasion KD Sre Kedah of the Royal Malaysian Navy would be tasked to us. As a group we covered all the Far East, Aden and East Africa. :cool:

When were you out there?
 
I don’t think that anyone is suggesting destroyers (DDGs), Frigates (FFGs) and other types of ‘escort’ (eg an SSN) cannot potentially operate and provide effect in isolation. However, a carrier cannot defend itself in isolation so it is an inevitability that some DDGs and FFGs WILL be ‘tied’ to the carrier.

So therein lies a key point: the RN - at best - has the minimum number of DDGs, FFGs and SSNs required to meet Defence Tasks (DT); in my view it actually has too few. Therefore, when one of the carrier’s deployed, a large proportion - and quite possibly the majority of available ’war-goers’ - will be tied to the carrier and will be restricted in what else they can do.

Therefore, perhaps the term ‘escort’ is appropriate. Ultimately however, who cares? Most fast jets are called ‘fighters’ and many AFVs are called ‘tanks.’ Indeed, the carrier itself could arguably referred to as an ‘escort’ when it’s contributing to ASW and AD with the ultimate aim of securing safe passage for friendly assets.

Regards,
MM
 
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Some people have got no sense of humour. The point was about MOD/RN usage of a term which had the potential to give a distorted view of things. You may also have noted the title of this forum.



Not really as we do not have them anymore. My complaint is dumbing down and missing the chance to explain.



When were you out there?
1964/65
 
Some people have got no sense of humour. The point was about MOD/RN usage of a term which had the potential to give a distorted view of things. You may also have noted the title of this forum.

The post of yours that I quoted was bitching about people making irrelevant, humorous comments, and bleating about having a mod smite those who were jesting.

Now you say some people have no sense of humour.

Well anyway, on with the escorts.

ebay1009272.jpg
 
Escort is a duty a warship is given. I was with 29th (Later 22nd) Escort Group which consisted of four ships one Daring class and three frigates, A/s and AA. There were I think three, maybe four such escort groups in the Far East at the time and on occasion KD Sre Kedah of the Royal Malaysian Navy would be tasked to us. As a group we covered all the Far East, Aden and East Africa. :cool:

I always said the RN should take more exercise.
 

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