Roger the Dodger wrote:
Another question - how on earth are they going to increase the crew accommodation to more than double the original design? Are they going to select only dwarf sailors?
Whatever happened to the much vaunted original idea that given extensive automation the ships don't actually need a large crew?
Whilst the frigates were designed to use lean manning concepts, the actual accommodation provided is more than that required for the lean manning concept. I'm sure that the figure of 87 crew excludes the SAAF/flight department crew, MRS and Health Services members, etc, for which plenty of living space was provided. I think the Valour class now has a crew compliment of 167. Many of the other Meko operators are also manning their vessels with many more than the minimum number of crew required, utilising numbers very similar to ours, such as Australia (163), Greece (173), Portugal (180) and Turkey (180).
Another reason for the increased crew figures is that the Navy needs to give their new recruits sea days for training and qualification purposes. The Strike Craft (OPVs) are not large enough in terms of crew or at sea enough to provide the desperately needed experience to the new sailors.