I am referring to the lies, lies, lies and more lies the MOD spouted after the SA80/L85 problems were exposed in Desert Storm. After that long, drawn out years long farrago, I am disinclined to believe ANYTHING the MOD releases - including the claims of the Type 26’s (potential but unproven) supremacy.
Also, note that you yourself admit that they had to try multiple times to get the rifle to be acceptable - the US does not *have* the time to wait to get the bugs out if the Type 26 ends up being the New SA80/L85. If it ever proves out in British service, we can talk about it then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDCRop6CRwY
As for Windows XP - see above, the MOD is claiming it doesn’t, there’s clear photographic evidence that there are computers on board that do run XP, I have severe problems with MOD’s assertions. XP should not be anywhere near a brand new military vessel at this point, even for development purposes. As someone who works IT for a living, the fact that even ‘standalone’ XP machines are on that carrier tells me that there’s something horribly, horribly wrong with that ship’s IT.
It says pretty plainly that it will not be using XP for the operational systems, what can I say?
By the time the US rolls the first Type 26 off the production line, the type 26 will already be in operational service will have ironed out the bugs and can apply any lessons learned to the US ships. Much of the equipment used on the Type 26 is already in operational service elsewhere anyway, including generators produced by General Electric that are also in service with the US Navy in the Zumwalt class and the MT30 gas turbine already in service with the Zumwalt class, Freedom Class and the QE class.
Some of the tech will be new and untested of course, but unless you want your ships to be obsolte before they’re even completed, you have to push the envelope and try untested tech that will need to be debugged during operational service, which the Royal Navy will be doing anyway before the first US frigate hits the water. There is however, nothing to match the hull design which will be the most accoustically quiet in the world and optimised for anti-sub warfare, which is perhaps the most dangerous threat to the USN because they can actually get close enough to pose a threat, unlike enemy surface combatants. Other designs are more general purpose frigates that are not optimised to anywhere the same extent for ASW as the Type 26.