RFA Support Vessels

[Daxx]

Is this the same RN that was at one point terribly perplexed over paperclip usage and the intellectual might of 2SL was brought to bear on the issue?

Don't mess with the stationary budget!

 

[alfred_the_great]

The cumulative number of solid RAS (any variety) by jackstay since the noughties is surprisingly low.

Glad to have been of service.

 

[Cutaway]

Don't mess with the stationary budget!

It won't budge.

 

[Not a Boffin]

Sure? I thought T-AKE's were double hulled and MARPOL

Nope. Cargo fuel doubled, but not ships fuel. Plus all the other bits of MARPOL that didn't apply when they were built, but do now.

 

[Not a Boffin]

Glad to have been of service

???

 

[RumRationReject]

So corporate memory faded to say the least. If anyone still serving was on Corporate, I'd be very surprised.

The current Commodore RFA, ironically!
Might be Commodore (E) but I saw him at an event sporting the SA Medal.

 

[PhotEx]

I was replying to PhotEx and his 'buy American - as easy as popping down the car showroom' posts.

We could buy American, but we SHOULD seek a lot of US input into a vessel design we have effectively zero design skills in either specifying, or designing.
See the never ending fuster that is SSS - Hint MoD RN, its not a bloody cruise ship!

 

[Not a Boffin]

We could buy American, but we SHOULD seek a lot of US input into a vessel design we have effectively zero design skills in either specifying, or designing.
See the never ending fuster that is SSS - Hint MoD RN, its not a bloody cruise ship!

At least two UK companies might beg to differ.

 

[alfred_the_great]

???

I've (relatively recently) done heavy jackstays for ammunition and food.

 

[Not a Boffin]

I've (relatively recently) done heavy jackstays for ammunition and food.

That's got to be a discriminator / USP in your next OJAR? Next FO Sea Training surely beckons? From one of our RFA?

 

[alfred_the_great]

That's got to be a discriminator / USP in your next OJAR? Next FO Sea Training surely beckons? From one of our RFA?

It’s not hard, frankly.

park alongside, pass lines, make sure you’ve got enough hands to clear the dump.

 

[Not a Boffin]

It’s not hard, frankly.

park alongside, pass lines, make sure you’ve got enough hands to clear the dump.

Yes - and no. Aside from the parking when it's a bit bouncy or dark, I'd hazard a guess that the composition and number of loads, combined with storing routes is where it gets tricky. Particularly if you're in MHE territory. Clearing the dump with a palletron, breaking down the pallet and then chainganging its content below decks on a T23 is one thing. Doing it with bigger indivisible boxes - or ammo ULS over some hours is probably another that we haven't done often in a while.

Glad to hear it's back on the rise.

 

[alfred_the_great]

Yes - and no. Aside from the parking when it's a bit bouncy or dark, I'd hazard a guess that the composition and number of loads, combined with storing routes is where it gets tricky. Particularly if you're in MHE territory. Clearing the dump with a palletron, breaking down the pallet and then chainganging its content below decks on a T23 is one thing. Doing it with bigger indivisible boxes - or ammo ULS over some hours is probably another that we haven't done often in a while.

Glad to hear it's back on the rise.

Having done it both in a T23 and a CVS, the latter is much easier. A T23 is in a “valley of death” of amount of stores required v deck space to store it before it is struck down.

It was far easier in a CVS where you just moved the entire pallet to the area, and you could leave it there. In a T23, you had to break the pallet up before you could get the next load over.

T23 4.5 replenishment is long, hard, sweaty work.

 

[Not a Boffin]

T23 4.5 replenishment is long, hard, sweaty work.

Be glad they deleted the proposed VLSW RAS arrangement. Heath and Robinson didn't even come close!

It's all about the volume (of stores) in the end. Can't image how shoving 18 rounds of 4.5 individually down the ammo chute could be any sort of challenge! The gun always jams after 22 rounds anyway - or was that just when VSEL were aboard?.

 

[Yokel]

Be glad they deleted the proposed VLSW RAS arrangement. Heath and Robinson didn't even come close!

It's all about the volume (of stores) in the end. Can't image how shoving 18 rounds of 4.5 individually down the ammo chute could be any sort of challenge! The gun always jams after 22 rounds anyway - or was that just when VSEL were aboard?.

Has anyone got the ability to replenish vertically launched weapons at sea? Would it be worth a few £££/$$$ being spent to work out how to do it?

Out of interest how did ships doing NGS in the Falklands replenish their magazines?

Over on PPRuNe one of the usual suspects on the Future Carrier thread claimed that warships cannot be resupplied at sea....except by COD aircraft. Yet every USN carrier documentary features as RAS.

 

[alfred_the_great]

No one can RAS VL magazines.

They RAS(A)'d.

 

[Yokel]

Sorry - my bad for mentioning the two things together. I meant was it done by Jackstay or could 4.5" rounds be transported by VERTREP in sufficient quantities?

I imagine the carriers needed resupply with bombs, Sidewinders, ASW weapons, etc. Do larger carriers mean greater weapon and spare storage to support sortie generation or simply more logistical demand?

 

[PhotEx]

At least two UK companies might beg to differ.

our recent track record at building RFAs domestically isn't stellar.
these will be very large complex ships, defo going to need a grown up watching and explaining.... see Electric Boat and BAE.

 

[Lindermyer]

No one can RAS VL magazines.

They RAS(A)'d.

Didn't the US try - with a crane replacing a few silos - then realise that in practice it ranged from foolhardy to fxxxkin dangerous

 

[Not a Boffin]

The US system was a crane in three cells of a Mk41 farm on the Ticos. Trouble is that pendulum motion of a 20ft weapon in any sort of wind, let alone ship motion is very tricky. Plus you have to remove the empty canister first, so the number of serials doubles. So all cranes deleted and the cells used for extra rounds.

They did trial a specialist carriage that would be sent across from the MSC ship and traverse the VL farm, but it was just too much and still didn't remove the empty canister issue (nothing does). It'll be in a field in Port Hueneme somewhere.

The French have some frame for Aster, but for loading when alongside than for underway. We may use the same at UHAF.

RASing VL is a challenge thus far unsolved.