Ref the above comment I'd be looking to fund a hospital ship out of the aid budget. Look at the amazing job RFA Argus did in Sierra Leone. DifD should be funding a future replacement.

Good God the comments on the daily mail link are pitiful. Nation of bloody idiots.

Any future stovl aircraft for the carriers face one major issue & that's fitting in the hanger. Only the Bronco has folding wings or at least has wings small enough to fit on the lifts. To develop or convert something else would cost a fortune. Plus the Bronco gives a nice light attack option ;)

Really informative article. Pity more of that wasn't out there in a format the general public would pay attention to.

http://alert5.com/2017/08/16/ex-raf-loc ... d-tankers/

This updates Marktrigger's post above. 3 of the 6 bought to be used as tankers.

Pinched from Snafu blog. Japanese Merlin crashes during sling load trials.

Pinched from a post on Snafu.



Japanese Merlin down. Right mess though all 3 crew escaped with minor injuries according to the post I saw.

What about the CBA40mm turret from the UK Ajax armoured vehicle. It is already in production and stabilized (albeit for cross country use!) I've suggested this before. It's already been developed as the RAPIDfire anti aircraft system & I believe Thales have touted it as a ship system. Make sens...

cockneyjock1974 wrote:Once and for all can anybody tell me what the arm sticking out above the Nav bridge on the forward island is for? It looks like it's got a clamp at the end of it!

Ships selfie stick !

Out of curiosity is there any information out there as to the upgrades & alterations being done to the PoW in light of its enhanced role replacing Ocean ?

I assume that said alterations would be retrofitted to the QE at a later stage?

I'd have thought rolling the CTA40 out across all services would make sense.

RAPIDfire anti air system for the army & RAF regt & the Sea Guardian for the navy & RFA.

Not news but I had a Poseidon really really low over the house just before 1am this morning heading for lossiemouth. Really rather impressive due to the low cloud reflecting the strobes & undercarriage Lighting. Either a Herc or Orion went over about 10 mins before it.

I'm such a geek

I know that the UK companies manufacture the best part of a third off each aircraft but how did Italy manage to blag itself an overseas F35 assembly line & the UK did not?

Not sure about the T45 not getting future energy weapons. Any pictures I've seen of the Phalanx with Dragon Fire upgrade seem to be sat on the deck of a T45.

It would be fantastic if we bush would sail up to qe for a photo ,the future of the usn and rn together ,brilliant ,fingers crossed folks We'd then get nothing but complaints about the carriers not being catobar, not having any planes & how the F35b is crap & that the harrier conquers all.

The increased height is what made me think of the Bay as a base platform. Even just 2 of them, that's 1 per carrier group. It'd still have a well deck so having secondary transport role but it'd be a platform for Sampson, Aster missiles & BMD. It'd probably even have the size & electricity g...

Pity the carriers didn't get Sampson in the end. Maybe we should spec it on something like a bay platform & go with a cheaper version of the American lpd arsenal ship concept.

Addendum: Just spoken to who knows a bit.....as the ship is in BAeSystems hands for ME sea trials they will not have started WE trials and thus will just be using the Nav radars. Apparently a lot of the warfare teams are not onboard whilst the ship does propulsion trials. Oh well, that seems like a...

The Shackleton was best described as "a hundred thousand rivets flying in close formation." Loved the Shackleton. When I was much younger my grandparents had a cottage in the woods above Forres. You could hear them coming for ages before seeing them. Awesome aircraft, such an incredible s...

I'm assuming there are Merlins going in and out from Lossie to the ship.

Would it be too early for them to be coordinating with Typhoons? Maybe Using the radar to track them & communicate/guide them through the Flyco ?

Is this not what allies are for when your part of an alliance? It's a NATO operation to track subs in the Atlantic not a solely uk one. We provide air defence assets to other NATO nations. Bingo. We supply C17s & Sentinels to help France in Mali, they help us with MPA etc etc. That's, what bein...

Well thats disappointing. I'm not convinced we should be selling anything to that lot.

Going well OT now but still thinking on saving using Merlin & Wildcat for "menial" roles If we can dig some Sea Kings out of storage to help the Germans http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2017/july/26/170726-helicopters-return-to-cornwall-skies then why not pick ...

Can the old "land" Lynx not be used as a Gazelle replacement for transporting folk around our had that been put to a PFI? It does seem to be a waste to just bin such a versatile chopper.
Though wasn't watch keeper supposed to replace Gazelle in the reconnaissance role?

My thinking Donald was that they already heave the standard naval Lynx. Check the fleet out & pick the aircraft in the best condition to hang onto