UK Defence Forum

Who is the greater fool; the fool, or the fool who follows? By all means be interogative about action reports but do not dismiss the first hand accounts of those who were there. The captain of the Gloucester was in JHQ with my father in the late 90's, he seemed to have a very clear account of what w...

Ron, saying things such as that I find offensive. Usually such banality is uttered by those who haven't served. Speaking for most veterans I would say elasticity would be a blessing. Most of us have the events in contact seared into our conscious as or more clearly than even the faces of friends and...

No Western army can match the Sov Bloc doctrine of Russia, PRC, or PRNoK with firepower overmatch and numbers I'm afraid. Even if we built the platforms and funded them, the manpower uplift would bankrupt any western power. Instead we need to deny them the target sets by mobility and concentration (...

Sorry, getting my Scandinavians mixed up!!!

totally agree, but if we could lose the 1.5kg the Finns seem to have done then perfection becomes deified!!!!

Better to go down the Finnish route and rework the GPMG. Don't mess with perfection !

High readiness units always carried 1 fire unit (NATO) in the armoury. At least they did until 2001 when I left. Deep store for us was Beith, not sure what was carried there but they always came up with the goods when asked. Not sure what goes on now but in the bad old days that was the case. I'll d...

MrF, as i said at the start, I'm not trying to drag the thread down! Certainly the last time I was in green (or sandy to be precise) there were 80's still in the armoury. They would certainly be lifed but I read somewhere some of the later batches were retained after testing (although they are likel...

Unfortunately the MoD dont follow common sense. They procure and sustain existing systems based on a through life cost basis. I doubt they will allow it and insist on 1 or the other (81/120). Assisted direct fire is a great concept but certainly I found it marginal in contact using the 51mm. The big...

I am not trying to be confrontational and send this thread into the fantasy arguments that seem to dog other parts of the forum BUT: The days of man packing mortar tubes and rounds are over. In the 'fight fast, fight dispersed' mentality especially against numerically superior forces then you have t...

There is no way anyone would operate the 60mm mortar in direct fire I'm afraid. The firing position would leave the gunner and loader very exposed so their use is danger close accurate indirect fire in support of sections in contact or prosecuting an attack, or, use of obscurants in the support of t...

Yes but only makes sense if we move to the 120 mm mortar for Coy, Bn, and mechanised units and issue this at Plt level as a 2 man fire team attached to the standard 3 x 8 +4 Plt from the heavy support coy. Otherwise we have 2 light mortars (81mm , 60mm) with overlapping roles. Also, if we switch to ...

Manual system is backup only. FCS is by bridge console.

Does the proposed nationalisation of Ferguson mean that they do not meet the necessary criteria for inclusion for T31 vs state aid/ subsidy. If so then that would be a true CF on Ms Fishy's behalf. Anyone know how this is handled for contracts for EU law?

That is because the fuckwit SNP led administration specified an all electric drive system with 2 diesel generator sets which ended up being insufficient and that no-one in the UK had ever built before. That and that the whole lower deck needed a redesign to meet the new environmental regs that we we...

Range of SAM's is irrelevant if you are below the radar horizon.

Some if not all of the gear such as boxes and cables was likely to be coaxial testing rig sets. We used something similar for testing ATGM.

T45 has an optionally manned turret as do the T23 and all other except the B2 rivers. The pannier sits in place of the seat and manual fire controls. It was the loss of this that caused the reticence in the RN. You can see this in the documentary about HMS Duncan in the Black Sea. I wouldn't think t...

Milan had a warhead weight of 2.7kg, single stage HEAT with a beryllium copper liner. It was more effective than other heavier warheads on systems such as AT-4 spigot or Dragon due to it's wider face and tapered distal end causing a more focused plasma jet. Great bit of kit, heavy to lug around and ...

Better than the goose entrails stripes it went in with!! The dents apparently took a while to hammer out!

That is HMS Talent

Suppression eats ammo at fearsome rate no matter what calibre. Suppression would only be used in an under fire extraction of personnel or in the final stage of a section assault. I think what we are referring to is covering fire, ie 'If i stick my head up I MIGHT get slotted' not 'Holy shit if you a...

oops missed the fact we already had Valiant. If that is the case how about Lion or Renown.

Valiant would be my bet.

Currently SPY-6 only is working in S band. There are software and hardware faults on the X band unit.