UK Defence Forum

From the very end of SJP's review: Progress on implementation should be reviewed internally in 2021, by which time...[reasonably there should be clarity] on the procurement of Type 26, Type 31e and Fleet Solid Support ships. - i.e. the mix between T26 (incl? AAW) and T31 (incl. any? Batch2) within ...

I am so proud of my perceptive post on STRN, I am copying and pasting it here. Donald-san was commenting on the latest fuzzy CGI that looks like it only has 12 CAMM mushrooms: "Donald-san, I am going to go out on a limb and say I think the CAMM launchers in that low res picture are two ExLs and...

Kites? Kids toys? Must dust off my idea for trained eagles with bino's.

Gabriele wrote:Absolutely. If Conformals were feasible, they would be the No 1 option on every list.

Mmmm the RAF begs to differ. Plenty of quotes saying this would not be high on their shopping lists.

Not sure they will remain that cheap with all the expensive kit you are loading :-) A couple decades ago it was going to be balloons that flew over warships to provide ISTAR. I think BMT actually sketched out a balloon carrying ship for taskforces. That idea was never implemented in modern times. Wo...

The main constraint of RAS is that you are sailing on a fixed bearing and a fixed speed for a long time (could be up to 5 hours). Of course you need to ensure that you have clear seas ahead of you for the full time of RAS and, if possible, you choose a bearing that is into the wind direction. But w...

A question I’ve long thought about and will probably never know due to OPSEC reasons, is can a fully laden (fuel & weapons) F35B take off from the deck of the QE class? If so I would imagine take off would be much closer to the stern. Can the F-35B take off from the CVF's at max TOW? The quick ...

Sticks head out of window - E/O from 40 thousand feet errrr OK. Just not today and I live in a place that's lucky to get 10" of rain a year :-) Sorry to be such a skeptic but if there are all those reasons why the HAPS cannot be detected, why do navy ships go radio silent? And yes, knowing ther...

From the Daily Telegraph. The headline is a little odd and is contradicted by the contents. How MoD's latest move has left British shipyards floundering Alan Tovey, Industry Editor 10 November 2019 • 3:38pm In the final hours before Parliament dissolved and purdah began, government ministries rushed...

and the HAPS radar? without it, the HAPS has very little value right?

Wouldn't they advertise the carriers location to anyone in radio range? All that EO video, radar, data links, being transmitted from 30,000 feet would be rather noticeable. Line of sight radio horizon from that height is over 250 miles.

One of the main reasons for conventional carrier high speeds (apart from wind over deck) is to allow the carrier to resume its position within a fleet of escorts after having headed into wind for flying ops.

The CSG could go to 32 knots....normal speed of advance of a CSG is over 20 knots Not really, the recent reports of the carriers doing 32 knots and the oilers doing 27 is hogwash. Fleet speed is 16 knots which generated the requirement for the Tides to be able to maintain a sustained 16 knot cruise...

no reason why the UK can’t have two giant dry docks - one at one end of the country, and one at the other end seriously? Build new capacity when loading the existing facilities on a sustainable basis is a hot potato. But it is election time... - in fact, the RN has been ambitious in setting the dis...

Lord Jim wrote:How many Boxer's the UK is actually getting has not been clarified beyond the "Will receive more than 500 Boxer 8x8 high mobility, network-enabled armoured vehicles".

528 including 5 prototypes:

http://www.occar.int/uk-joins-boxer-family?redirect=/news%23news

From Flight today: Germany appears poised to advance a joint programme with Spain to equip the nations’ later-model Eurofighters with active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, as Berlin also nears approving the acquisition of 38 new aircraft to replace its Tranche 1-standard interceptors. “...

Whenever you have external fuel pods a percentage of what’s carried in them is offset against the drag associated with carrying them. When this was worked out it was found the smaller tanks offered marginal range extension and was binned as not worth it. Bollox. Cancelled to save money. One of the ...

Getting back to the drop tank topic for a moment. I've found some material on the internet from a decade or so ago that talks about the tanks then under consideration: 480 gallons. Here it is: shoot, can't get them loaded, board limit exceded. Ah well. it was not the users decision, just a case of ...

Is the new secdef actually going to take some concrete action, or am I being to much of an optimist. Nominated "the ship-building supremo" must carry some meaning. even those in the UD, though indirectly. in the US, I guess? As they have it there, all ships in grey must come from domestic...

be built in the UK to support British industry, a call backed by industrialist Sir John Parker in his review of the UK’s shipbuilding industry. + was handed to the Government in the summer but released on Monday. So the review of the review is out now... I've totally missed it The Government either...

Using OCCAR means the UK will get the vehicles at equal or less price than the Germans & Dutch. But, as mentioned in the announcement video, the vehicles will then have to have all the UK equipment fitted which will raise the price significantly. Thanks to the use of the UK vehicle architecture,...

Getting back to the drop tank topic for a moment. I've found some material on the internet from a decade or so ago that talks about the tanks then under consideration: 480 gallons. Here it is:


shoot, can't get them loaded, board limit exceded. Ah well.

Still not for speed dude. RCS reduction, seakeeping or looks: take your pick.

Timmymagic wrote:And Spain and Germany are moving forward with AESA radar, this appears to be Radar 1 NOT the UK's preferred Radar 2. There was speculation that Germany was more interested in Radar 2.

Timmy, what's the difference between the two radars?