Ron, I accept my post was badly written. FOAS was to look at tornado replacement and replica was to gain exprience in stealth. Though replica is similar to the jsf proposal I think there are differences in the wing in particular, though it seems clear the designs are related, whilst the main result ...

Personally I'd be dubious about letting the Turks build ej220s on license. I don't trust erdogan at all. Despite a well structured and thought out development program I doubt they could design their own Mach 2 engine so they're definitely gonna need help on that front. Perhaps something like a cross...

Didn't some photos appear a year or so ago showing Bae had got the model back up at their radar return testing pole, anyone ever hear what that was all about? Funny to think not that long ago the raf planned this as it's tornado replacement (f35 performance wasn't good enough for the role they claim...

Prepare for an explosion of Internet forum flame wars as the first leaked 'results' appear from DACT exercises involving f22/35 and typhoon and f18!

IIRC they had ej220s in mind for the engine from the beginning so I'd be fairly certain that's what the Turks are after. They said at the start they were confident with most aspects of producing their indigenous fighter but not the engine and some of the higher tech electronics. Would imagine they'l...

Mr Fred, Ron has given you a couple of nice pics above but there's a nice gallery of pictures here - http://www.jsf.mil/gallery/gal_photo_cddr_mda-ngc-bae.htm and also a little bit of info on the design too. The secret projects forum also has a really long thread with just about everything that's ev...

There are two versions of that documentary, watched them both a while ago. The content is virtually identical but one had an American presenter and the other a British one that obviously looks at it very slightly more from a uk PoV. Personally I loved the NG/MDD/BAE JSF proposal that was eliminated ...

Following their revelations about the trident test failure the times also had an article about a paper that's just been published by the centre for historical analysis and conflict research that was backed by rusi (i think) that Russia could destroy the army in an afternoon and that defence cuts hav...

It mostly is bullshit, 2 carriers was a manifesto promise, it was planned in the SDSR, and 2 confirmed again today. The idea of a large LPH and maintaining one task group at sea contentiously is a nice one. Would love to think youre right but I don't trust the govt one bit. They may have promised 2...

Continuing from the carrier thread also. Absolutely disgusting. As I said I'd mothball POW then shout it from the rooftops in the hope of embarrassing them. Our only hope is for the forces leaders to start standing up to the govt and not toe the line. Otherwise I agree funding won't be increased and...

Hence why I reckon they ought to shout mothball POW from the rooftops cos cutting anything else makes it a paper tiger any how. Level of political embarrassment for the govt would at least give some hope of things being sorted out. Guess that depends what foreign aid or diversity projects urgently n...

Armchair soldier, Beat me to it! Was just about to post that one - depressing start to my day as I read that this morning :( Having had time to digest the article, if the forces higher ups had any balls I'd go for mothballing the POW then trumpet it all over the place and humiliate the govt. in the ...

Mr. Fred - I agree it seems cheap and am only quoting what the article says. All - Though I don't know much about tanks I Would trust you guys ahead of newspaper journalists when I consider the shocking levels ignorance I've seen from defence correspondents on subjects I do know more a little more a...

Article In Today's times claiming army considered replacing chally 2s with latest leopard as it could have worked out better value for money than the current upgrade but the mod backed out cos they were scared of bad PR. if they ever felt it wouldn't be too bad the option would still be on the table...

Retrosicotte & ACC, Many thanks. Hopefully I'll live long enough to find out about artisan and its competitors! Interesting that some sources seem to indicate it's in some superior to herakles, I've also seen other people compare it less flatteringly to herakles too though. To be fair though the...

Not arguing, just asking, but how is artisan as or ore capable then? I often hear that you can't just go with the top trumps (which make sense) but haven't seen any solid information to counter. Most of the hard stats I see seem to indicate artisan is behind most modern 3 and 4d AESA radars most of ...

T31 bottom line: T23 capability on a Venator displacement is fantasy. A noisy, slow, OPV with hangar and bigger pop gun is the best we can hope for. Actually cancellation of t31 to be replaced with more lower spec t26's i.e. the original plan, is the best but given the dimwits making the decisions,...

Aren't cat/trap operations weather/condition restrained so how in that regard is f35b any different to sharkey's beloved hornets? Sure I remember reading a large percentage of the Falklands war flying couldn't have been done with cats and traps due to appalling visibility and sea states...

ACC/sharkbait, As far as I know there's no real substantial info available so I've no idea which option would be best for the RN. From the tiny amount I have seen tern gives the impression of being furthest along and most closely matching what I think we need (not that that means much!). A 900NM ran...

Another "tail-sitter" in the works: http://breakingdefense.com/2016/12/marines-want-drone-mux-faster-for-v-22-escort/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=39066313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8MWrNm9Zzu_i1XeKyQ5RuszkB0uUdUZv--Rvgf8x0fkK5VQDamPl3AvCBsF-BRgtM1vBAVRL8HNJno1_hFy5nt...

Even though ACC overstated Crowsnest's abilities, in a sense, the Marines have benefited already. The USN & Marines were very impressed with the Sea King's baggers over land capabilities over Iraq. Very helpful to said Marines. So they spent a bunch of money in upgrading their E-2's to have com...

- do you understand that Crowsnest is an off-board sensor, and available to anyone that can connect with a supported protocol? - there are plenty of those (Link-16, TARAS, TIDLS, STRIL, MADL, IFDL...) - if you know anything about the topic area, you will recognise what these protocols are mainly us...

I need to read the report properly and in detail again but am actually a little concerned after a quick first read. Whilst there were some sensible suggestions there was noting that wasn't really common sense or not been suggested here/elsewhere before. My main concern though was the report seemed t...

Even though I have got ( too early to say) the same impression on the RN side of things as you, lets remember that Carter has been in charge ever since Gen. Wall asked him to produce an alternative plan to the MRBs (to kill them). I really hope you're right and I have been known to be overly parano...

Gabrielle, funny the first thing I thought when I read the times article was that you've been saying this is a danger and a crazy (fully agree with your Twitter comments today I saw through your blog too) decision. I share your concerns about Carter too. We're gonna end up with the worst of both wor...