Dr P von Vincent BTEC this week discusses the need for a Light Cruiser in the DDS fleet.
This week i would like to address the Light Cruiser programme (LCX) that later in the decade will join the fleet. Firstly though i have a comment to make on last week's column on Windscorpion @ 40. Some have asked if my views on Windy Mania steering clear of violent homosexuality is Windy's official policy? Actually it seems its not judging by his latest utterance.
Anyway the LCX. Is it needed? What is it going to do? The fleet is dominated by ships tailored to two specific roles : combat and patrol. The DDS lack a general purpose warship for roles that fall outside of those two roles. Such as science, surveying, calibration. Now of course you may ask why build an expensive large warship for roles that seem more suited to ageing frigates. Because the LCX will also be able to perform the combat and patrol roles. It will be able to plug either gap and thus will give the fleet a much higher degree of operational flexibility.
A maid-of-all-work then.
