UK Defence Forum

Poiuytrewq wrote: partly to safeguard the continuing inclusion of the 127mm auto magazine on the T26.

Which is a good thing
- what shall we do with the 20 or so older guns?

In the disclosures about project delays/ cost overruns, it is interesting that the sale of DSG (to Babcock) is mentioned, but when you look at the sale agreements, they contain special provisions about the Latvia Contract (presumably because it was Gvmnt-to-Gvmnt?), but nothing at all about Warrior ...

Will have to wait for our Ozzie correspondents to wake up for the answer, but I remember that before that lease took effect the repair yard was separated (and someone else operates it as a going concern, whereas the lease may or may not be renewed - depending on future projects).

With such a small fleet, at least initially, we can't afford to have fleets within fleets post Block IV. Agreed There was a lot more in that than the Swiss proposal.. The 9.2 was of course the figure (and the only figure) disclosed to our Parliament; I was just adding the El Cheapos as quoted for S...

40 F-35A for £5bn and 9.2 for the first 48 (Bs) - USAF avg sustainment figure (assume only parts counted, not man hours of consumables) $5 mln per a/c - so the above fleet (with more Bs) would be c. 500 $ mln p.a. in the steady state (and $27 mln for many of the early a/c, to bring them "up to...

Not sure if it was final but the French were putting some on their supply ships so that they could ply back and forth unescorted.

SD67 wrote: then in 10 years time do the CR2 upgrade.

-and give it a ten-year life span... even the Armata might be back from the drawing board by then

Jensy wrote:used to 'sweeten' less palatable parts of the defence review.

Very much last chance saloon for Yeovil.

Likely (but will there be gapping? Not necessarily in lift with the 16 new Chinooks on the way; if we keep the older ones a tad longer that is)

These Brigades are not the ideal, but it would provide the Army with three viable Brigades as well as nine mobile and deployable Infantry Battalions. There is an obvious lack of Recce platforms in these formations, but I would suggest that a variant of the JLTV could carry out this role the Army wo...

It was a mistake and there’s no plan to axe the C-17. Air support (more than just transport) will cost £18.6 bn to acquire and support over the coming 10 years... more than combat air @ £17.8 bn ... so would not have been a surprise (but equally would have run totally against "Global Britain&q...

1. Ajax. (3.5 billion + VAT) 2. Boxer. (£2.8 billion) 3. Warrior CSP. (£800 million at least, maybe more like £1 billion in reality) 4. Challenger 2 LEP. (£1.3 billion) As we will have two bdes of each kind, that will be - 6.3 bn for the two strike (+ some for arty) - 2.3 bn for the two of AI (+ ju...

Poiuytrewq wrote:Something like an adapted Platform Supply Vessel

Built for stability; how do you beach it?

Ron5 wrote: Argentina is down there

Oh, you mean the armed pensions , at 0.85% of the GDP?

abandoning all its heavy weapons including tanks after nearly a century of use and making US Marines purely a light infantry force Not all but unwieldy (tanks) or having too short a range (heavy mortars) ... long-range fires instead, to support quick island-hopping ops (rather than massive assaults...

As per @albedo, new engine for F-35 and conformals for SH (the latter's remanufacture will extend to mid 30s).
- we should batch our F-35 procurement in such a way that some will come with the next-gen engine... gets to be kinda expensive to rebuild every single plane

As to conformals I suspect its going to be a story that drags on and on, like the Typhoon's, until someone official states that its not possible. USN SH Block 3s have them (playing catch-up with the F-35C's strike range), from Forbes in June: "The combat range of the Super Hornet has been an i...

my point is more that NATO Europe should replaces the escort only SNMG-1/2 with a LRG 1/2 Amphibious operations, in the main, include accessing hostile or potentially hostile shores ..., with more or less persistence to enhance the joint commander's freedom of action - I can see the case for such o...

“We continue to need ‘boots’ as well as ‘bots’. A good one, whereas The Telegraph understands Central and South America and East Africa are regions also being considered for an expanded British Army presence. it beats me who we might 'deter' in the Americas? The French are quite overstretched in W ...

SW1 wrote:Did the poles not order lots of patria amv and Lithuania boxer?

I guess the plan to stay well clear of the Priper Marshes https://cdn.britannica.com/62/130062-004-675F00CB.gif

Max Jones wrote:Karel Doorman jointly operated by Germany and Netherlands

On the surface not important, but Belgium has also joined in
- on the other hand, KD will surely turn up for the joint UK-NL amph. force

J. Tattersall wrote:well suited and a main armament of 30mm is more than adequate.

Don't shoot before a test is taken... and returned from the labs

re equipment plan built around a greater number of Boxers (800), around 150 Challenger 2 CIP, a reduced Ajax purchase to around 150 and a modernised Precision Fires Capability. Other than for Ajax, sounds like the Russian army plan, until 1, the doctrine was changed for "a" war in their W...

RunningStrong wrote:d. Both have their benefits and weaknesses.

Why we all can't just agree that half-tracks are the best of both world's

The Israelis made a huge success of/ with them in the Sinai desert
... err, don't think we are going there

Caribbean wrote:was unemployed and on the run in South America and the TCI Government sold off a huge amount of publicly-owned land at a fraction of it's true value.

At 230 mln $, exactly ... still waiting for my commission on it... all these things Caribbean

Timmymagic wrote: If we wanted 2 carriers available for ops we needed to have built 3...

Indeed.

This tweet=tweet loading NOT! is quite a tedious way of having a conversation?

Can we please have the key sentence of any such - compressed communications in itself....supposedly - here?