Again - Japan said it'll strip the vessels bare, & it's
gonna be all hardware if we choose to buy. The submarines we
purchased from Sweden in the latter '90s were all 25-30 years old
& post-decommissioned, but which we evaluated & found of
excellent value for refurnishment.
In any case I think we're getting lumped together with Malaysia
(who has the bigger NGPV ambitions) &, while I said we don't
need more heavy capital ships per se, it's more with the
presumption that we're already committed to building the stealth
frigates. Dunno about the S'pore version, but the latter's cousin
ships have a standard displacement of 3,500 tonnes (French La
Fayette class) & 4,500 tonnes (Saudi Al Riyadh class),
according to an online site. In other words, S'pore already wanted
bigger vessels to complement our corvettes & attack craft, to
serve as conventional maritime security - rather than just chase
pirates.
Let's see what Japan actually offers; we can always say no
thanks.
