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The Offshore Combatant Vessel (OCV) is a proposed multipurpose small warship class for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Initially proposed in the 2009 Defence White Paper and marked as procurement project SEA 1180, the 20 OCVs would replace 26 vessels across four separate ship classes: the s, the s, the s, and the es. Although having a common design (which could be up to 2,000 tonnes in displace), the ships would use a modular mission payload system to fulfil specific roles; primarily border patrol, mine warfare, and hydrographic survey. The 2013 Defence White Paper committed to the OCV project as a long-term goal, but opted in the short term for an accelerated procurement of an existing design to replace the ''Armidale''s, and life-extension refits for the other types. ==Planning and design== First made public in ''Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030'', the 2009 Department of Defence white paper, the planned vessels stem from Government instructions for the RAN to rationalise patrol, mine warfare, and hydrographic survey assets into a single class of warship.〔Department of Defence, ''Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century'', pp. 72–3〕〔''Australian Offshore Combatant Vessels'', p. 1〕 Twenty vessels are proposed.〔 The project has received the procurement designation SEA 1180.〔Scott, ''UK, Australia begin talks on future ship projects''〕 Instead of being capable of performing all roles simultaneously, the ships will have a modular mission payload system like the Standard Flex system used by the Danish Navy, or the system used by the United States Navy's Littoral Combat Ships: mission-specific equipment will be fitted to containerised modules, which can be exchanged for different modules when the ship needs to change roles.〔〔Thornton, ''The Rationale for the RAN Offshore Combatant Vessel'', pgs. 6, 8〕〔Boettger, ''The Offshore Combatant Vessel'', p. 31〕 The use of containerised modules means that equipment can be upgraded without taking the ships out of service for refit, and if necessary can be fitted to requisitioned civilian vessels.〔 The cost in developing and implementing the modular system is predicted to be offset by the savings in the areas of maintenance (having to purchase and maintain stocks to repair four different designs), personnel (having to retrain sailors when they transfer to a new ship), and administration.〔〔 It is anticipated that the new ships may displace anywhere up to 2,000 tonnes, although defence magazine editor Kym Bergmann predicts that this 'worst case' would require 50,000 tons of steel or aluminium to be fabricated (compared to 36,000 tons for the ''Collins''-class submarine replacement project), and unless multiple shipbuilders are involved, the 12- to 18-month construction time per vessel will see the last ship enter service during the 2040s.〔〔Bergmann, ''Buzz around all-in-one combatant vessels''〕 Instead of building all 20 vessels to the same design, the idea of hull variants optimised for different roles is also being explored:〔 the module system will allow a ship designed for one role to be rapidly reconfigured to serve in another role, with a small but acceptable loss in capability compared to a 'native' OCV. The OCVs could be designed to carry a helicopter or an unmanned aerial vehicle to improve each ship's surveillance range, but this avenue is dependent on further study and cost-benefit analysis.〔〔 Although the 2013 White Paper committed to the OCV as a long-term plan, it announced that an interim patrol boat class based on an existing design would be acquired as a short-term replacement for the ''Armidale''s, while the ''Paluma''s and ''Huon''s would undergo life-extension upgrades. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Planned Australian offshore combatant vessel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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