Its a question I have been asking to myself for a while.
I am not suggesting the RN do this but when you look at the T21s and T22BIs still in service you have to wonder how long a warship can last. I know Bangladesh may still run ancient Cat and Cathedral class frigates and there are one or two Leanders still knocking around.
So, how easy is it to keep a warship in service?
If you want to keep it reasonably up to date there are plenty of off the shelf systems that can be bought, Sea Ram, Sea Giraffe, modern guns etc.
How hard would it be to re-engineer an elderly gas turbine ship? They are after all equipped with semi-modular propulstion. So, for example at T21 - get rid of the expensive to run Olympus and replace with G30 gas turbines - either 4 as a Tyne replacesment or 2 with two modern diesels. And what about replacing generators with the latest spec kit?
This sort of thing happens on commercial vessels.
I guess cost would be the main issue, but if you are a navy looking for a couple of decades use out of a hull with modernised electronics and new bolt on weapons, would it make sense?
