【军武次位面】作者：海东青
In the previous article, we briefly introduced the current handle of the Australian Navy, the strongest destroyer in the southern hemisphere, equipped with the original Aegis baseline 7.1 Hobart-class destroyer, although the performance is not as good as the mainland's 052C/D, but its threat is still not to be underestimated.
▲ Hobart-class destroyer.
However, the once glorious Hobart class will soon become an outdated Internet celebrity in the Australian Navy, because the Australian Navy has started a large-scale naval expansion plan, in fact, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia's naval arms race over the years is largely influenced by Australia.
The Australian Navy's current main equipment includes two Canberra-class amphibious assault ships, three Hobart-class Aegis destroyers, eight Anzac-class frigates and six Collins-class conventional submarines.
The Canberra-class amphibious assault ship is a contemporaneous project with the Hobart-class destroyers, and like the Hobart-class, it was also purchased from Spain, and is based on the Juan Carlos I-class strategic projection ships, two of which were commissioned in 2014 and 2015.
▲Canberra-class amphibious assault ship/light aircraft carrier.
Although the name is an amphibious assault ship, but the bow of the ship is on such a large slip deck, and I don't believe that I am not an aircraft carrier ghost, the prototype of the Canberra-class Spanish Juan Carlos I class was originally a combination of a light aircraft carrier and an amphibious assault ship, which is equivalent to a hybrid of 50% aircraft carrier + 50% amphibious assault ship, so Spain named it a strategic projection ship.
Juan Carlos I/Canberra-class full load displacement of 27,000 tons, maximum speed of 21 knots, can carry 1,000 marines when performing landing missions, and can carry more than 20 Sea Harrier fighters when performing aviation combat missions, although there is no ability to carry F35B, but only need to be slightly modified, at present, Australia has bought F35A, and only need to buy some F35B in the future, and the two Canberra-class can be transformed into aircraft carriers immediately.
As the main force of the sub-class, the Anzac-class frigate is not well-known but is famous, its MEKO 200 frigate originated from Germany, with a full load displacement of 3,600 tons, equipped with an MK45 127mm naval gun, 8 units MK41 vertical hair, two quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missiles, a phalanx close defense gun, 324 torpedoes and other equipment, since 1996 has been in service 10 ships, Australia 8 ships, New Zealand 2 ships.
▲ The original Anzac-class frigate.
The Collins-class conventional submarine is also a conventional submarine built by Australia in the 90s, with an underwater displacement of 3,400 tons, which is quite large among conventional submarines, second only to the Japanese Soryu class and the continental 039B/C class, which makes it have quite good ocean-going combat capabilities.
Both the Anzac and Collins are products of the 90s, and it is time to renew, so Australia has put forward an ambitious naval expansion plan in recent years, which is used to replace the Hunter-class frigate of the Anzac-class, with a full load displacement of nearly 10,000 tons, which is much larger than the Hobart-class destroyer as a frigate.
The Hunter-class frigate is based on the British Type 26 frigate, but the British Type 26 configuration is too low, the Wu De is too stretched, and it is okay to put it in the European region, and it is a pure live target in the Asian region, so the Hunter-class configuration in Australia is much higher than the original Type 26, so the full load displacement is also higher than the original Type 26.
The biggest feature of the Hunter class is that it is equipped with an integrated integrated mast of Australia's domestic CEA-FAR2 three-band phased array radar, its predecessor CEA-FAR radar has actually been modified and tested on the Anzac-class Perth, which has a total of 16 arrays - 6 L-band, 6 S-band and 4 X-band, all of which are active phased array radars, the second generation of hunter-class equipment compared to the first generation of the Perth, the array is larger, and the detection distance of the three bands is 450km/ 250km/150km, once the Hunter class is completed and put into service, it will become the second warship after 055 to use an integrated integrated mast with no less than three bands, so there are also Hunter class nicknamed "Australian Small 055" (there is a saying that this tonnage is actually close to 055).
▲The Anzac class after the transformation of the three-band phased array radar.
At present, the equipment configuration of the hunter class is relatively simple, for the MK45 type 127 naval gun, 32 units MK41 vertical hair, two quadruple Harpoon missiles and other equipment, although the tonnage is large but the firepower is not enough, so the British BAE Group launched a firepower upgrade program, in the middle of the hull to add 64 units MK41 vertical hair and two quadruple Harpoon missiles, so that the total equipment increased to 96 units vertical hair +16 Harpoon missiles, finally worthy of this tonnage, BAE even claimed that if the 127 naval guns are canceled, another 32 units MK41 can be stuffed, so that the total number of vertical hairs will increase to 128 units, and even surpass the Ticonderoga-class cruisers (indicating that the Europeans can still make heavy firepower warships, but Party A can't do it, and the horse will be released in Nanshan).
Although Australia has not yet shown interest in the heavy firepower version of the Hunter class, but no one can say for sure what will happen in the future, Australia has planned to order 9 Hunter class, but recently it was reported that due to the rise in prices, Australia may learn from the United Kingdom, cut a few Hunter class, and replace them with a cheap version like the Type 31 frigate.
▲Hypothetical diagram of the Hunter-class frigate.
In addition to these 9 10,000-ton frigates, another major move of the Australian Navy in recent years is the much-uproar nuclear submarine project. Britain is dumping nuclear submarines together, and the current public information shows that Australia hopes to directly purchase 5 nuclear submarines from the United States or Britain in the next ten years, which may be the British Astute class or the American Virginia class, and at the same time start the domestic nuclear submarine program with the technical assistance of the United States and Britain, and it is expected that the first boat will be completed around 2042, and eventually build 8 ships, this huge project will cost more than 200 billion US dollars, perhaps the largest arms purchase in the first half of the 21st century.
▲ It is not surprising that the British Astute-class nuclear submarine will appear in the equipment sequence of the Australian Navy one day.
After seeing Australia's large-scale naval expansion plan, it is no wonder that Singapore, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries are so anxious to follow up and start a large-scale naval expansion plan, so that the mainland's South China Sea fleet will have to continue to make dumplings.