Thanks so much all for your contributions (the Type 41 upgrade looks pretty neat JSB!) Its humbling to have so much interest shown in this.
Your respective contributions have caused me to have a serious think about 'Guardian Class' and the capabilities/length of service/engineering and hydrodynamic realities of what i'd originally proposed.
As such, taking all of your thoughts and recommendations/suggestions on board will be a bit of a lengthy process - so after this post the Guardian Class may be taking a back-seat for a while as i work through everything. I may even start from scratch and use Hood's original Daring class as a base for a better result in the long term.
In the mean time however - please have a glance at the following;
Firstly, FDS Hecla (Survey vessel/Hospital Ship) retained by the Royal Navy in the Hospital role post 1982 and transferred to the FDS in 1985. Served in peacetime with an international medical staff courtesy of international aid groups such as 'Mercy Ships' and 'Médecins Sans Frontières' (Doctors without Borders) as an exercise in 'soft' diplomacy by the Falklands Government and the FDS. The ship also conducted tri-annual cruises around the various territories conducting basic medical services and elective surgery functions in place of dedicated hospitals (which were only really available on the Falklands themselves or on the South American Mainland. (Further iterations of this ship showing changes during it's tenure will be added in the future)
Second, as a response mainly to the comments by acelancelot and others on the 28th/29th May (prior to the current suggestions surrounding Leanders',types 12/14/41/61 etc) Please see Version 3 of the Final Guardian Class upgrade.
You will note the seawolf system has moved forward of the bridge to the 'B' position, being replaced on the hanger roof by a goalkeeper CIWS and the exocet launcher has altered to enable placement on the fantail (made possible by the truncation of the helipad). The Towed VDS is gone (i have to find one that is more chronologically appropriate than a Thales CAPTAS-4!!), and whilst the deck space and placement remains in situ, the forward set of secondary 30mm guns is gone to partly offset the weight of seawolf and exocet. I've also made an effort to rework the masts so the ship isn't so top heavy - not sure if i've gone quite far enough yet though... I also have yet to address conserns about the hanger and aft superstructure being too large for the hull - but that will be a longer term process.
Thanks again for your thoughts - it's sincerely appreciated.
Cheers
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Current Worklist;
DCFI (Falkland Islands) AU Nation