UK Defence Forum

That chart really shows how capable Fort Vic is and how well she stacks up compared to the rest of west. Just to add a couple more..the Fort Vic's really are/were an impressive capability. RNoMS Maud - 27,500 t, stores 1,000 t, fuel 13,800 t - Uses BMT Aegir design, smaller sister to UK Tide Class ...

QE and PoW are no longer the largest-ever ships in Portsmouth Harbour. Bugger...presumably she's just tying up for a while? Can't imagine there is much demand.. Hangar deck is 155m x 35m. Height of 6.7m, increasing to 10m in some places. Can accomodate up to 20 F35B for maintenance. I think someone...

RichardIC wrote:@NavyLookout claiming next year’s carrier deployment will involve 14 F-35s - 8 UK AND 6 USMC.

I remember when it was 12 and 12, then 12 and 8....now 8 and 6...

With regards to the F35 B this article suggests that the upgrading to block4 will add weight and affect range ,I dont know if this has been discussed elsewhere but in an aircraft operating off a carrier this suggests it would be vital for all of the F35B operating off carriers to be so upgraded to ...

Running the Electronic Attack mission on a single seater is not ideal to say the least though. In the early days of the JSF there were suggestions (but nothing more) that a 2 seater variant could be useful in some circmstances, suspect it will never happen though.

Would the modifications outlined by Lockheed for SEAD roles for the f35 be included for the f35b https://www.airforcemag.com/lockheed-to ... nses-role/ certainly, the timeline in batch 14 could be useful Some of the modifications will, the ESM for example. But the SiAW and AARGM-ER munitions will n...

Not sure if they would mothball a carrier yet, maybe after the 2021 CSG deployment for QE, they will want to work up POW to full capacity aswell, so maybe after 2022 they will extend the rediness date for the second carrier? PoW looks like it will be the initial carrier. But I suspect the 'readines...

I've revised the data in this list following the NAO report from the other day... typical...out of date within a day or so.. Amendments highlighted in red font since last time: So of the UK's '48' here's the status: Note - Delivery is 'usually' a minimum of 2 years after order. Delivered to date LRI...

ps I really like the picture that shark bait found maybe a more stable platform. FSC was prescient in many ways..they even built RV Triton to test parts of the concept. It was very serious. Personally I always thought that BMT's Pentamaran Global Cruiser was even better...unfortunately Richard Beed...

RichardIC wrote:4. It's a sign of insecurity in an age when you know you're going down the pan - and it really pains me to say that

Well thats every major country up the creek without a paddle then...

Is it not the case that some of the early f35b models have reduced airframe hours because of cracks in bulkheads. And that these need major rebuilds to bring up to current standards. There was some cracking in bulkheads on very early F-35B for the USMC but a fix was made and all built since have be...

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3 ... -its-f-35s Yeah...that article is based around the Hansard record and Gareth Jennings tweet that was pretty much 48 x £22m = A lot of money...which doesn't really correspond with reality.. The Hansard exhange is the real meat. But its a bit of a nothing b...

So it is fair to think that these "last" of the 48, the baker's dozen allowing for a rotten one in the counted quantity, will be "pukka" as to what we thought we were buying in the first place They should hopefully be ready, or perhaps need minimal updates. Remember although the...

Jdam wrote:First I hearing on this thought these weapons were B4 myself

Someone was saying the same about JSM being 'integrated' in 2023. It might be flight tested with weapons release trials, or perhaps a limited capability release by 2023, with 'Full Capability' waiting until Block IV.

The £22m per aircraft is the worst case scenario for the oldest aircraft. The UK has very few of these. Until recently the Block IV upgrades were only going to be software updates for the most recent production aircraft, but I saw something recently that implied that it might be a little more than t...

There's a video posted up-thread talking about 'why Germany won't buy the Super Rhino'. Quite a bit of wide speculation as German politics is a very complex beast. I think that was me that posted it. There were reports in the press the other day about the MoD and industry pleading with the Treasury...

For all the criticism of the US procurement system and pork barrel politics in the procurement of military kit the German one really leaves them in the shade. It makes sense for the Germans to fund the development of Radar 1. As to the potential Typhoon and SuperHornet order I wonder just how nailed...

Can some one help explain to me the logic of Sea Venom (100kg weapon, 30kg warhead, 25+km range) when the UK is about to bring into service SPEAR3 (100kg weapon, 30kg warhead, 140km range) which is also network enabled? It's a fair question. Ostensibly they are very similar. And I've wondered, give...

My feeling is that if the Italians select Radar 2 then there's half a chance that the UK will adopt it, but then I think that there's an equally good chance that it'll end up with only Italian Typhoon's receiving the upgrade and the UK deciding to class it as a stepping stone development on the roa...

A lot of the US "gear" will be exactly the same as the UK gear including fuel. Remember its exactly the same Aircraft apart from Radios. So I would imagine that apart from US munitions, and spares there will not be a great deal of "gear". So I would imagine that it will be loade...

dmereifield wrote:Yes, I was thinking India. Thought they had more than one

Italy has the Garibaldi and Cavour.

Ever heard of RAS? Do you not think that one of the evolutions to be practiced might be to RAS from a USN supply ship, to acquire USMC munitions. If USMC F35B are to become a credible (or regular) component of a QEC air group, this will definitely have to happen, or the USMC munitions could be load...

Evidence? Knock yourself out... https://www.gao.gov/search?q=joint+strike+fighter&Submit=Search Each delay, restructuring etc is symptomatic of incompetent programme management. Very well run programmes deliver early and under budget, good programmes deliver on time and on budget. F-35 is neith...

Ron5 wrote:dumb Yankee engineers, brilliant British ones.

There are British engineers working on the software now as well...

But if you're persisting on this theme then fine, piss poor LM Programme Management has plagued the F-35's development. Happy now?
Are you going to disagree with that?

Regarding the Falklands, the Sidewinder "Lima" was just one of the things the US provided to the UK, otherwise the Sea Harriers would have been using the old "Charlie" version. The AIM-9C was a radar guided version that never went anywhere. The UK had AIM-9B and AIM-9G in stock....