2nd Time Lucky: Chile Buys French Amphibious Ship

FS Foudre

When 2010 British budget cuts forced the Royal Navy to sell RFA Largs Bay just a few years into its service life, Chile’s need to deliver disaster relief from the sea made them one of the reported bidders. Largs Bay ended up heading to Australia, but France’s replacement of its Foudre Class LSDs with larger Mistral Class LHD helicopter carriers gave Chile another opportunity. In October 2011, Chile reportedly beat out Brazil and Argentina for the deal, which is said to be worth $80 million.

The 12,000t FS Foudre was commissioned in 1990, so she is many years older than Largs Bay. On the other hand, Chile’s needs a replacement for its 8,687t Valdivia Newport Class LST, which was retired in January after almost 40 years of combined US/Chilean service…

Taiwan’s Frigate Corruption Investigation: Full Steam Ahead

Kang Ding w. SH-60
(click to view all)

In 1991, Taiwan’s $2.8 billion buy of 6 Kang Ding Class multi-role stealth frigates from France, purchased the navy’s current high-end surface combatants. These ships are derivative of the Lafayette Class, which has been used as the base platform for several nations’ frigate designs – but they have critical weaknesses due to technologies not transferred to Taiwan.

That’s not the only weakness associated with this purchase. A major bribery scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars has percolated for several years – and is also associated with a murder. It’s now associated with a demands for around $950 million in fines, most of which is already owed by Thales and the French state under international court rulings. The rest is tied up in a 2nd lawsuit, against DCNS.

• The Scandal
  
• Key Events & Timeline [updated]
  
• Additional Readings
  

Rapid Fire 2011-10-13: Defense Offsets | F-35 Congressional Support

• Don’t mind me, I’m just the user. Driven mostly by political pressure, defense offsets have grown to 130 countries for an estimated $100B/year.

• Russia is likely to continue renewing its aging materiel, at least if oil prices remain high and Putin gets, as widely expected, the presidency back. They’ll have finished scrapping their T-64 tanks by the end of the year.

• The Military Logistics Forum reviewed the effectiveness of current ground vehicle RESET/RECAP programs.