For info...according the House of Commons running order the statement on the SDSR can be expected at 14:30 GMT.

BBC also reporting 9 P8s

Guardian article seems to indicate a competitative/selection process which IMO is only a marginal improvement over the current situation and offers little hope that the capability gap will be plugged anytime soon. The government making noises such like 'we will look at options to regenerate MPA capa...

Think it's a decent move, particularly if the cost is picked up by another department. My understanding was that the RAF had a number of the total (9?) available as part of the permanent fleet and the balance (5?) as a surge capability that AirTanker would push onto other punters when not required? ...

Video of installation of Artisan radar...

http://forces.tv/11461438

Lugzy wrote:I believe the Austrailan Air Force purchased 8 reapers and two ground stations at a cost of around 300m dollars , around 15m dollars per reaper earlier this year .

Just need to apply the standard U.K procurement formula (x10 and turn into £).

Good discussion. For me, Ron's point about the extent to which the chosen solution meets the design brief/requirement is the compelling one; i.e. scrutiny of the decision to go with CODLOG comes down to whether the GT [alone] meets the targeted power requirements? If yes, then you look like a hero t...

Further to Tony's response...

http://www.janes.com/article/54269/uk-m ... 6-dsei15d1

Few news articles over the past few days relating to recent comments made by Penny Mourdaunt (Portsmouth MP, Armed Forces minister). Positive noises that manning of both carriers has been factored into the assumptions going into the SDSR.

It's all about orders of magnitude isn't it? I should have clarified my nervousness...Im concerned that it will look like our acquisition of Apache or, dare I say it, Phantom.

I'd prefer it to resemble C-17, stick in the RAF embossed floor mats by all means but don't go silly on 'kit integration'.

I would have thought the questions regarding the suitability of the P8s at low level is based on the fact that the wing and engines are (obviously) designed to operate at higher altitudes; that it's more a case of compromised efficiency rather than anything related to 'stability'. If anyone has any ...

Be careful, Fallon has been, in the past month or so, flirting with the idea of including a number of areas currently in the foreign aid budget as part of the defence budget in order to meet the 2% target. Notice in the announcement words to the effect of 'threats don't distinguish between Whitehall...

It will almost certainly be P-8. The question is how much of a balls up we can make of getting hold of some (which will dictate numbers, due affordability). Needs to be as close as a straight off-the-shelf lease/buy as possible, no faffing around with trying to integrate U.K specific kit where OTS k...

Some of the best footage of OT-1 that I've seen...

Fear not, the Gov will delay some gate/milestone in a bid to push £££ from one column of the spreadsheet to another and 'hey presto' you have the required saving. In X years time we'll get to the column of the spreadsheet that tots up the cumilative costs of such delays and some bright spark will de...

A lot of optimists on here. I'll gladly eat my hat if we end up with 13. U.K defence procurement has long been in an invirtuous circle of fewer numbers, greater costs. 13 means 10, 10 means 8, 8 means 6...etc etc... Until we stop feeding the BAe monster numbers will continue falling. We're talking a...

For a given set of conditions the rolling landing will use less fuel versus a vertical landing (assuming the roller doesn't go around) and the engine will be exposed to lower temps (which effects longevity of 'lifed' components). The SRVL looks inherently safer when you look at the fly away case to ...

There was a short piece on last nights BBC1 News @ 10pm where the BBC reporter was reporting from Wasp/OT-1. The story was the usual 'can the U.K afford the troubled stealth fighter' piece. Couple of nice shots but nothing of any real interest (other than the U.S. General expressing concern about th...

Some nice close ups...

Nice one CJ, awesome shots as usual.

I agree it's a difficult 'pitch' to describe a Triton buy as necessary, particularly where there are other priorities, though I confess to liking the 'Broad Area' MOPS that the USN is intending to employ...i.e. using Triton to maintain near continuous maritime surveillance whilst leaving the P-8s to...

Jonas, I have suggested that there are merits to an additional C-17 order to preserve the life/hours on existing airframes (see separate thread), but agree that this falls behind MPA in terms of priority.

Some of the posts about the possibility of salvaging kit from MR4A to put on P-8s send shivers down my spine. If you could think of the more expensive way of regenerating MPA I'd be interested to hear it. Would be nice to see the U.K following the Australian buy of P-8s and Triton. I guess we will a...

as SMH mentioned, it will be interesting to see whether the U.K exploits the ever-closing window of opportunity to take another 1-2 C-17s. My understanding was that the RAF C-17s were some of the hardest worked (no. of hours) airframes in the global fleet, thus even if there was no requirement for a...

Is there an example of a military procurement programme that has been better (faster, cheaper, exceeding expectations) than that of the preceding procurement programme for any given mission requirement? For every one example cited, countless examples of protracted, late, expensive, underwhelming, co...