Swedish navy launch state of the art lunchbo... er, i mean stealth ship

[meglamaniac]

In a shocking move, those dastardly Swedes have beaten Jee Dublya and the US navy to the post in producing a stealth ship. Oh noes! Someone more technologically advanced weapons than the US! You do realise, you poor Swedish lot, that beating Mr Bush immediately grants you a place in the Axis of Evil right? Hope you've got plenty of helipads, cos the Apaches'll be turning up in a couple of days so some bored GI's can arrest half your population for looking at them in the wrong tone of voice, and then attach elctrodes to them.
Have fun!
Your only salvation lies in the hope that they'll laugh so hard they crash their helicopters, cos it looks like it's made out of cardboard by a 5 year old. C'mon, you could have at least gone for a cool catemaran design like that (fair enough, fictional) stealth ship in whichever James Bond film it was ("the world is not enough" i think?)

On a less politically ionised note:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3724219.stm

[pyirt]

[/rant]

[Apothos]

"The new ship is also controlled by state-of-the-art computers using a Windows NT operating system."

Uh-oh (someone would have mentioned it).

[IncubusGod]

Wasn't that unveiled years ago? Or at least the prototype? Saw it on the Discovery Channel about 2 years ago or so.

Anyway,why the hell do the Swede's need a stealth ship then? Where will they be sneaking to? THEY HAVE PLANS I TELL YOU! PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE!

[meglamaniac]

Never trust a population that spends half its time in a sauna.

[IncubusGod]

Never trust a people who's massive ego acts as a contraceptive.

[Petru]

Originally Posted by meglamaniac

C'mon, you could have at least gone for a cool catemaran design like that (fair enough, fictional) stealth ship in whichever James Bond film it was ("the world is not enough" i think?)

You mean a Hoverspeed Seacat painted in matte black paint?

[Proteus]

Countries with proper navies don't need "stealth ships", because we have nuclear submarines (or, in the case of the US, nucular submarines).

[roadrunner_0]

Originally Posted by Petru

You mean a Hoverspeed Seacat painted in matte black paint?

yeah, but it looked cool, so what more could they have wanted

[1-X]

the stealth vikings are coming!!!11

btw*, was Vicky the Viking (cartoon nostalgia) Norwegian or Swedish?

*[/transparent derailment attempt]

[Dead_Meat]

A friend of mine helped design the Type 45 for the RN, or define it's mission capabilities.

I'll have to phone him and ask why everyone has cool looking ships and we have something uglier than Ann Widdecombe.

[1-X]

"Type 45", is that a codename for The Mary Rose?

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

A friend of mine helped design the Type 45 for the RN, or define it's mission capabilities.

I'll have to phone him and ask why everyone has cool looking ships and we have something uglier than Ann Widdecombe.

I think the Type 45 looks quite nice.

[Evergreen]

You know what I just realised.

The premise of this ship is that it detects anything in range of it's interception/ranged attack before it can detect them.

What about stealth planes?

Also wouldn't it be great if we had a war where everyone was using stealth and like planes are flying over each other and boats are sailing right beneath the planes and everyone is like... You know it's too quiet out here where is everyone.

[Dead_Meat]

Originally Posted by Proteus

I think the Type 45 looks quite nice.

WHen you compare it to the US ship,which is completely enclosed, as is the Swedish. The French Lafayette class (this), which has been around for years, even looks relatively sleek, but ours has radomes sticking out of the mast, the bridge is unchanged from the same thing we've had for thirty years and it all looks stupidly top heavy.

What would you rather have? The Type 45 or something that looks like it was designed recently, like this

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

WHen you compare it to the US ship,which is completely enclosed, as is the Swedish. The French Lafayette class (this), which has been around for years, even looks relatively sleek, but ours has radomes sticking out of the mast, the bridge is unchanged from the same thing we've had for thirty years and it all looks stupidly top heavy.

What would you rather have? The Type 45 or something that looks like it was designed recently, like this

Definitely the Type 45. The French one looks like a toy ship and the US one looks like its designers have been watching too much Star Wars.

[Nodrog]

shut up

[Dead_Meat]

Originally Posted by Proteus

Definitely the Type 45. The French one looks like a toy ship and the US one looks like its designers have been watching too much Star Wars.

Maybe the Star Wars ship isn't such a bad idea if it means it's radar cross-section is markedly reduced and thus won't be detected by the relatively simple radar seeker heads on anti-ship missiles.

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

Maybe the Star Wars ship isn't such a bad idea if it means it's radar cross-section is markedly reduced and thus won't be detected by the relatively simple radar seeker heads on anti-ship missiles.

I'd rather have a nice-looking ship with a few more Goalkeepers or Phalanxes, to be honest.

[Dead_Meat]

I'm sure the sailors on board would agree that having to destroy a missile flying at close to Mach 1 when it's a mile away and locked on your ship, rather than not being targeted at all, is a small price to pay for having something that looks like a good, old-fashioned warship

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

I'm sure the sailors on board would agree that having to destroy a missile flying at close to Mach 1 when it's a mile away and locked on your ship, rather than not being targeted at all, is a small price to pay for having something that looks like a good, old-fashioned warship

Exactly.

[skiddy]

I'd rather not be on a ship as they're full of queers.

Oh, wai...

[Dead_Meat]

Originally Posted by Proteus

Exactly.

Based on this logic, I guess you'd prefer a small, gold-inlaid antique single shot pistol instead of a modern automatic rifle with a sniper scope?

AS LONG AS YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE IT, AM I RITE ?

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

Based on this logic, I guess you'd prefer a small, gold-inlaid antique single shot pistol instead of a modern automatic rifle with a sniper scope?

AS LONG AS YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE IT, AM I RITE ?

If you design stupid-looking ships to avoid outdated weapons, the enemy will update their weapons but you'll still have a fleet of stupid-looking ships. Plus naval recruitment would be rather difficult if the mighty British fleet looked like someone had bought it at Woolworths.

[Dead_Meat]

I think you'll find that Exocet missiles, dating back to the 70's, are still very efficient at finding large radar contacts and hitting them. Hitting them in turn, is rather difficult.

As for naval recruitment, by the time these ships are in service, the 19 year olds teh recruiters will be targeting will havegrown up playing with PokeMon and watching Matrix movies. Do you think they will want to serve on something their fathers would recognise, or something that looks like it might still have a chance of survival in more than three years time.

[KraKto$is8]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

WHen you compare it to the US ship,which is completely enclosed, as is the Swedish. The French Lafayette class (this), which has been around for years, even looks relatively sleek, but ours has radomes sticking out of the mast, the bridge is unchanged from the same thing we've had for thirty years and it all looks stupidly top heavy.

What would you rather have? The Type 45 or something that looks like it was designed recently, like this

The first one looks like a toy ship, the second one looks like something from Total Annihalation... war is not a game, boys!