Destranator
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Think you missed the point.
Just what critical need would 2 extra Type-53H3 frigates fill for BN? Not much is the answer.
Better to have spent the money building up the fleet of Type-056 corvettes. They do slightly different things but still it is better to buy new vessels of one type and standardise on them.
This way you have a joined up plan to build the Navy up over many decades. No other Navy in the world is doing what BN is doing in terms of buying more 2nd hand ships than new ones and there is a good reason why.
The main goal of BN is to increase and maintain surface presence in the BoB which the frigates are fullfilling regardless of what systems they carry.
Second hand frigates are cheaper and ready to operate.
Let us look at it this way:
We both agree that a frigate is more than just a fancy metal superstructure floating around in conformance with the Archimedes Principle and studded with cool gadgets.
A frigate is a mini military base and organisation. It has highly specialised manpower on board who need to be trained, equipped, fed, rostered, performance managed, etc.
It takes a lot of time to build this ecosystem.
By buying used frigates, BN is creating platforms for these ecosystems to grow which can be transferred over to newer platforms when they arrive.
These ecosystems cannot be created hastily overnight when new frigates arrive.
(@The Ronin you see why I abuse BAF so much? No amount of jet trainers can create ecosystems for fighter jets)
Now as to why BN is uniquely "obsessed" with second hand frigates:
BN's situation is quite unique for the following reasons:
- Formidable adversaries on both sides necessitating surface presence round the clock
- Low risk of actual military conflict
- Generally anti-military spending public opinion
- Lack of trained manpower to man additional frigates
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