HMS Queen Elizabeth and Italian aircraft carrier Cavour in Sicily, Italy yesterday:



Image credit: https://twitter.com/antares01614803?s=21

Video footage of the F-35 launching from POW:

That's one of the water-filled mockup F-35B's used for flightdeck training. PoW's not certified for fixed wing Nope! Lightning strikes HMS Prince of Wales for first time https://i.imgur.com/cftRAPp.jpg Britain has taken a big step towards a two-strike carrier Navy with the debut of the F-35 Lightni...

Thinking of our late friend desertswo who would have been 65 today. I’m sure he would have enjoyed seeing and discussing the recent happenings with the carriers.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?i ... 26#g123.q0

First time landing of an Osprey:

The platform, though, has a Microsoft English proof reading (for spellos) setting, which considering where we are is quire (sic!) irritating - I appreciate that there might not be any alternative settings? The forum software has no built-in spellchecker. Your spellchecker is probably built into whi...

Deleted the last three posts. Let's leave the indy discussion there and stick to Type 26 news from here onwards.

RichardIC wrote:We don't need a new thread for this. There's already an F35 thread.

Indeed. Merged the topics.

The CSG will take part in air strikes over Syria:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/f-35 ... rike-group

Renamed the thread to make it the main one for GMLRS.

News only thread folks. There might not be a lot of news to discuss at the moment but let’s keep this thread tidy until there is. Use the escort general discussion thread for non-news and speculation: http://ukdefenceforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=701

inch wrote:Can someone tell me how many Britains f35 and American f35 will be embarked on CSG 21 ,if someone knows ,or might be a secret yet ? I know last time we both trained think was only 5 British f35b and loads of helicopters and 9 USMC f35b but please correct me if wrong , cheers

See above.

HMS Queen Elizabeth will not be fitted with 4 x 30 mm cannons as previously planned:

The forward section out in the open:


Credit to George Allison

Forward and aft superblocks of HMS Glasgow nearing structural completion (13 April):



Credit to Paul Sweeney

Merging this topic into the one for Boxer as it mostly relates to it.

A topic to discuss and track the development of the Type 83 destroyer announced in the Integrated Review: UK announces new Type 83 Destroyer The Defence Command Paper released today, titled ‘Defence in a Competitive Age’, confirms that the UK will develop a new destroyer type, the Type 83. The white...

A photo of the A321 slated to replace the BAe 146 in the VIP transport role.



Taken by nt639

The upgrade contract has been signed at £750m covering around 150 units.

Some rumours from The Times today: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/9m-boris-bunker-at-the-heart-of-an-army-fit-for-the-future-g7w3fbhtd British Army cut by 10,000 by 2024 and a further 2,500 by 2030 for a total of 70,000 personnel. This is to be achieved through cutting recruitment and not redund...

Nice shot of all three Batch 2’s together.

The Times reporting 758 Warriors may be getting retired and replaced by 500 Boxers ahead of schedule: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/doze ... -70j09mdnh (paywalled)

The British Army is considering SPIKE on Apache:

British Army leads the way for NATO’s next generation rotorcraft Colonel Paul Morris, Assistant Head Plans, Capability Air Manoeuvre, addressed the virtual International Military Helicopter Conference to outline further detail on how the British Army are leading NATO’s development of the Next Gener...