UK Defence Forum

the IH's were largely built to commercial standards Well - yes and no. The philosophy was to build those bits that needed it to naval standards and the rest to commercial standards. The end result was a design that survived standard shock testing (perhaps proving that they got the mix right?) the U...

Type 31 is a proper warship, it’s designed to full warship damage control standards and has a full up combat management system. The fact the design is adaptable to the point where it can (and is in danish service) a high end combat ship but can be configured to also initially provide a relatively c...

Bear in mind that these will be the Mexican Navy's top-end combattant. The Damen Sigma is marketed as a corvette/light frigate (depending on length) and it looks as if the Mexican Government has bought/ will be buying itself 8 new light frigates - they will eventually replace the existing (and aging...

Timmymagic wrote:That will be interesting when US aircraft embark as a portion of the ships magazine and weapons preperation areas will need to be devoted to US munitions exclusively.

... potentially to demonstrate the flexibility of the automated weapons delivery system, in the light of future co-operation?

Thanks for the info - for some reason it had escaped me that they were quite so substantial. No idea why

How about EC145 T2, upgraded with "five bladed" rotor? That would be a decent choice for the Caribbean region. Cayman operates an EC145 (the UK provided 25% of the purchase cost under an initiative to develop disaster preparedness in the region) and are purchasing a second, to replace the...

Is it me, or could this "Minor War Vessels Centre of Specialisation" actually take two 150m plus hulls side by side?

cockneyjock1974 wrote:I feel the RAF maybe getting their WE177’s back as well or whatever modern incarnation it takes. I’ve always felt with no evidence whatsoever, that they’re kicking about somewhere.

Maybe we could take over the Belgian ones, if they decide to get rid of them

Iv said it before not only are we ordering the smallest number of our own design but also arming them to the weakest spec, this won’t look good on the UK and RN on the world stage really. Has the "spec" actually been published? Apart from some details on the main gun and possibly the main...

For arguments sake what aircraft does India have to operate off a stovl carrier ? Indeed. IIRC, the suggestion last year was that the Indians are interested in a CATOBAR variant and that they want to build their own as part of their attempt to build up their own arms industry (though I suspect that...

The QNLZ design was proposed (not sure if formally or informally) for the Indian requirement for their next carrier back in August or thereabouts, IIRC. Would they be more interested in the CATOBAR design or the STOVL varsion (I confess I've lost track of the Indian procurement process)?

which Guyana, though I was thinking the former British Guyana We also seem to co-operate more with the Dutch in the region than the French for HADR (HNLMS Pelikaan often takes over from the Bays during HADR missions, to allow the Bays to re-stock and change DR teams etc.) and with the US for counte...

Also inferring from the article, they may be starting out using the Dutch naval facilities in Curacao, though Guyana (not a million miles from Curacao) was talked about as a possibility last year

radar upgrade to replace the current 2d set Actually, I can't see any reason to replace the Scanter 4100, unless you are proposing to bolt on a couple of dozen Sea Ceptor as well. It might be a "2D" radar, but it is intended for use in tracking both surface and airborne targets up to 3500...

if you thought that refusing to handover full control of the F-35B source codes to your supposedly 'closest ally' wouldn't go unnoticed, thereby reminding the Government & armed forces of the need for a fully UK soveriegn jet , think again .... couple that with Germany refusing to allow the UK ...

If 150 Challenger 3's are acquired (the current favorite number) and that only allows 2 regiments to be equipped, how many would be required to enable 3 regiments? Around 206 (3 x 56 plus the 38 extras implied by the 150 figure). If the extras were also increased pro-rata, then add another 50% to t...

Florida and the Caribbean?

Weren't Bangladesh also rumoured to be interested in acquiring her?

Interesting upcoming questions include: will LEP be renamed Challenger 3 by Boris? (I would), will Warrior WSCP be cancelled and replaced with an Ajax family IFV like the Australian competition entrant but with the CTA 40mm turret? (I would) will the UK join with Germany to develop a joint solution...

Meriv9 wrote:Italy buys P1, Japan buys something from us directly or from you and you end the triangle buying something from us.

You have a rather nice LHD. It would look lovely next to our two carriers. It even has the right number of towers ............

Surfaced launched Spear 3 is a fantasy weapon. Not in development, but not entirely fantasy - it's in MBDA's mind as a potential future development - from TD In a maritime context, MBDA has shown an artist’s impression of SPEAR with a booster, quad packed into a CAMM launch cell. This means custome...

I don't know how you can target a pilots eyes with a laser and still claim it's not meant to harm his (or her) eyesight. I'm pretty sure that the limits of what the human eye can tolerate without being permanently damaged are well known. You don't need to damage the pilot's eyesight, you just need ...

The UK RWS 'fleet' is almost entirely Kongsberg. Again, we're heavily invested in that interface already so we would need to accept a bespoke solution for Boxer which doesn't make sense in my mind. We would need to accept a bespoke solution for Boxer Just because it hasn't yet been tested with the ...

I do wonder whether said RWS manufacturers have any interest in endorsing this integration in their already in-service hardware. For Midguard, Venom LR is a major advertising point! http://www.valhalla-turrets.com/products The EOS literature doesn't mention it (yet?), but the RWS can handle a missi...

What you have posted exactly describes the banning of "dazzlers". The British equipment was designed & used to damage the pilots vision. They are no longer fitted on any RN ship. Not so. The key word here is "permanent damage". I remember reading a post (over on ARRSE, I bel...