More Looks At The New River-Class Model
Noah Note
Another short one today. I thought I would follow up yesterday's post as the RCN has released additional looks at the new River-class model revealed yesterday. I know quite a few of you were hoping for more angles and such around.
There isn't too much that you'll find here thats new or interesting. We get a new look of thr Mysterious Boxes of Doom and Despair and it's cousin the Mysterious Boxes of Doom and Gloom. This is actually the first we've seen that there is a matching setup on both sides.
On another note, there have been some rumors going around since yesterday that this could be a Long Endurance Electronic Decoy (LEED) setup, the next-generation successor of NULKA. It is possible. We don't really know enough about LEED or what Lockheed is doing to say if this accurately represents what it looks like.
It could still be a placeholder image of course, never discount that reality, however that rumor is highly possible. With the first of the River-class coming in the 2030s, and LEED being a fairly low-risk commitment to NULKA for the RCN, it stands to reason that there might be interest in adopting it now over later.
Unlike NULKA, LEED aims to provide a a long-endurance, soft-launch decoy system able to be equip with a number of modular, advanced payloads to counter modern AShM threats. While the current focus is on EW Payloads and countering AShM missiles there is a bit of an expectation that LEED will become a univeral launch system able to be equipped with a number of payloads to potentially engage a multitude of threats.
The system will provide combatants with an affordable, autonomous countermeasure offering extended flight endurance over NULKA, with hovering capability of at least an hour on station. There is also talks about potential recoverable payloads, though little information on it.
LEED is a fairly quiet system. There isn't .uch out there on it but the expectation is that it will be integrated with the AN/SLQ-32(V)6/7, so the choice feels a bit natural given it will already be aligned with the River-class architecture. Of course we don't fully know if it is LEED, I have enquired to the DND. I shall hopefully get a response relatively soon.
Until then we can speculate. Hopefully the information will be relatively forthcoming. Perhaps I will reach out to Lockheed about it? I don't think they'll talk about it but I can try.