Saxonverse

Okay, this is something I've been brewing for years and occasionally dipping back into as I decide to change things around. Main point of departure is 1994, with a more minor PoD a couple of years earlier. It's a fairly Anglocentric AU, but other countries will be added as I go (Argentina has been done already; I'm currently working on some Middle Eastern and US stuff).

The key point of departure is the rise to power of the Rt. Hon. Harry Saxon MP, Member for Sheffield Attercliffe since 1985. Details on Saxon's life and career can be found in this article on my DA account, but suffice to say things were different under him than Tony Blair.

Ships and any other SB-scale stuff will go in this thread, starting with a 1990s frigate life extension programme. Other FD Scale stuff has its own thread here and anything in Gunbucket scale will go in the AU thread. Please feel free to offer up any artistic criticism, but in terms of practicality of some of the designs, this is purely fiction and intended to be only remotely plausible

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Hey, it's gotta be 5 o'clock somewhere...

Currently working on:
The October War, 27-10-1962 (apparently forever);
"Saxonverse" alt-UK;
Federation of the Channel Islands AU;
Republic of Yopur & Andaman;
some sort of overarching AU;
Regaining my sanity.

The decision under Defence Secretary Robertson and PM Saxon's Strategic Defence Review to retain Royal Navy frigate numbers at 26 meant that the ageing Type 22 frigates still in service would need something of a boost to remain in service into the 21st Century. Accordingly, the MoD unveiled the Frigate Life Improvement Programme, or FLIP, in November 1998.

For the Batch 2 ships, FLIP involved rearranging some of the internal spaces and taking an angle grinder to the ships. Firstly the Exocet launchers were removed and a hole was cut in the forecastle and a 4.5" gun turret dropped in. The saw was then taken to the superstructure and a space cut out to house two quad Harpoon launchers, as on the Batch 3 ships. A 20mm Phalanx CIWS was added in a similar location to the 30mm Goalkeeper of the Batch 3 ships, Phalanx being chosen because it required no below-deck plumbing. Finally, the Type 968 air/surface search radar was replaced with the Type 23's Type 996 3D set.

Boxer and Beaver also saw their Type 910 Sea Wolf fire control radars replaced with the more capable Type 911 used on the rest of the RN's frigates. Since their hangars weren't tall enough to handle Sea King or Merlin helicopters, both ships continued to operate a pair of Lynxes. The pair also retained their original GOGOG engine layout that was used on the Batch 1 ships.

[ img ]

The two would remain in service until the early 2010s, being decommissioned and sold to Romania. They would be extensively refitted in Italy prior to delivery, with a further upgrade taking place in the 2020s.

As Brave, London, Sheffield and Coventry had been completed to a different standard to the first two Batch 2 ships, featuring improved fire-control, COGAG propulsion and a larger hangar and flight deck, they would prove more capable in service and require less work to bring them up to a standard referred to unofficially as "Batch 2.9".

[ img ]

These four ships would remain in service until the mid-2010s, being decommissioned and sold to Chile where they would receive further modifications similar to their Batch 3 cousins' FLEX upgrade.

I think the addition of this shading and plating lines on this drawing mostly shows the low quality of the original work......

Also, aren't you missing some names from the credit line?

http://shipbucket.com/drawings/search?c ... =&drawing=

And I really doubt that helicopter would fit on that deck!

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Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
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