US Arleigh Burke Class FlightIIE

[MC Spoilt B'stard]

After reading about the Saudi Arabian navy's intrest in the Arleigh Burke design for its future Balistic Missile Defence i just tried some thing what i would see as a very nice export version of the Arleigh Burke class flight IIA , recalled it flight IIE, E stands for Export. It is to be believed that they are intrested in 2 to 3 ships.

i'm sure the US will does its best to look for a new allie in the Arab world , after losing Kadafi and other regime's.

Weapons :
- 5 inch (127mm/62) MK45 mod 4
- 32 Cell MK41 VLS for SM-2/VLASROC/ESSM
- 2 Quaduple Harpoon Anti-ship missile's
- 2 MK46 triple torpedo tubes
- 3 20mm Phalanx CIWS
- 16 Cell MK41 VLS for SM-3/Tommahawk

Hangar for 1 NH-90 Helicopter , inside the side door a RHIB is located , can also be used for drone's.

hope its liked,

[Thiel]

Personally, I think they would keep the hulls as similar as possible in order to smooth out production and get the full advantage of the existing production lines. Obviously, some systems would have to be replaced with export variants.

[acelanceloet]

they would need to enlarge the hangar though.... which is the major difference between this ship and the standard one, if I am correct

[Thiel]

What for? The Saudi's main maritime helicopter is the AS532 Cougar which is slightly smaller than the SeaHawk.

[MC Spoilt B'stard]

They did order 64 NH-90 helictopers for the naval aviation, dont know what kind of configuration. so thats why i placed a NH-90 on the stern.

[polluxdeltaseven]

What for? The Saudi's main maritime helicopter is the AS532 Cougar which is slightly smaller than the SeaHawk.

It's quite the contrary.
The Seahawk is around 15m long, while the Cougar is almost 20m long. Other caracteristics are similars by the way, but in a hangar the Cougar took much more space than a Seahawk or even a NH-90.
But maybe the Saudi version of the Cougar has better folding abilities, I don't know.

[Vossiej]

The Burke's really need to be redrawn..

[Mitchell van Os]

The Burke's really need to be redrawn..

That will make them even Uglier Vossiej...
Please dont, i am feared of the fact that they will destroy my mirrors and TV screens!

[MC Spoilt B'stard]

Yeah Yeah enough chats about the burke drawing , i want comments on my Flight IIE!:D

[Vossiej]

Well it looks good, however there are so many burke-deratives on the market right now, the Saudi's could better go for a design like the Korean DDX-III. But otherwise, it looks like a serious phalanx-overkill. I would at least replace the most forward launcher with a RAM, or keep two and upgrade them to SeaRAM. Also, increase hangar capacity to two heli's, there's enough space in there.

But in the end I am against using a 25 year old design for new ships, upgrading an old Burke would be another case..