BAE future fighter concepts paper I found quite interesting. Unfortunately, I have a feeling much of this will be well out of our league cost wise and probably more aimed at USAFs sixth gen efforts...

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_432748_en.pdf

Also just thinking aloud here - the way I see a2a weapons are gonna be going through the biggest change since the dawn of the missile age over the next couple of years, sensors and targeting too are Changing hugely. You’ve obviously got all the talk of lasers, but also missiles like meteor and at th...

I don't think he could have been an aeronautical engineer. The reason for two engines is that for the major thrust that a fighter needs, a 2 engine layout enables a less draggy airframe. Obviously I didn’t see any hard proof but he certainly knew his stuff from a technical POV and told me he worked...

I spoke to an engineer from MBDA for quite a while at RIAT and the 1 or 2 engine thing was something we touched on. My understanding had always been that for air superiority 2 engines was the way to go for the obvious reasons others have mentioned. Interestingly he didn’t think this was necessarily ...

https://therestlesstechnophile.com/2018/07/20/french-defense-leadership-discusses-future-air-combat-systems/ Anyone notice that when they spoke about the system of systems at the end it was there will be a stealthy UCAV, a manoeuvrable supersonic manned fighter and a hypersonic missile. Seemed pret...

Dunno, Ron’s points do have me worried, where will the massive amounts of money it would take to turn this from a concept study into an actual aircraft come from without a big increase in budget? I thought there was no spare cash till well into the 2030s and then we got trident missile replacement t...

I thought the problems came from trying to fudge new wings etc onto an old fuselage that had always been problematic due to the shape of the windows on the comet design having created stress cracks? Had they been able to build totally new aircraft using an updated version of the design it would actu...

Being available and being at sea are two different things. But in a national emergency, if available, both carriers would deploy. And like the Falklands, every F-35 will be onboard. So the UK should plan for at least 70-80 airframes and at least that many pilots. 4 squadrons plus OCU would be enoug...

Very impressive display at RIAT I thought. Can’t say I agree with all that can’t climb, can’t turn or run away stuff after seeing this....

so the urgency probably left commonality in a ditch Unfortunately Ive thought for a while that one of our big problems is that MOD 'just enough, just in time?UOR' policy flies completely in the face of trying to achieve savings through maximised commonality :( The two are just never gonna be happy ...

ACC - Firstly, apologies for the slow reply. Ive spent the weekend at Fairford airshow and had several interesting discussions there with representatives from various firms involved in this trying to get hints from them as to what will become of FCAS/Tempest. Obviously i imagine anything they told m...

ACC, could a fits all with as few changes as possibles GCS be a worthwhile project for the U.K. to look at I wonder? I guess it would have to be very secure from the risk of hacking/interference but surely having a single GCS that requires fairly minimal changes to operate all unmanned would be skme...

So, a hybrid that could reach much further out than an F-35 (that Japan already has), but with similar tech in it. Or, a twin-engined, long-ranged, and able to carry a massive missile loadout... thingy-bob. Done together with BAE What is it gona be? When I look at the timescales mentioned in that a...

, Fluidic Thrust Vectoring has been in development for a long time. I first saw a presentation about the concept and lab reasearch 15 years ago. The science is now very well understood and most of the key engineering challenges have been addressed, as demonstrated by the flight of the small scale U...

Hope I’m not out of order poking my nose in with being mostly a lurker here. Just wanted to say I struggled a little with getting ACC’s posts at first, no probs at all in grammatical terms, it’s just they can be slightly cryptic at times.Once I adjusted to his style thiough I realised it was mostly ...

That's clutching at straws now, the deterrent should definitely be under the MOD budget. No I agree with jake on that one. Before 2010 it was always paid for outside the defence budget. It was another sneaky move which hid quite how much they were cutting defence (whilst at the same time passing th...

As advertised it will still be a far better platform for many of the jobs the UK si currently using RFAs and RN research vessels for. It isn't replacing those vessels though, it's replacing our current patrol frigates which seeing as the types you mentioned are covering these roles are clearly need...

Wasn't TERN 900 mile radius of action with usable load (seems very high to me?), if so for our needs I think jt would be brilliant for the QECs, designed to operate from frigates and destroyers just makes it even more of a no brained for the RN to acquire. Bit of TD commonality! :D no reason why the...

If ASMs like that become a reality the likes of the excellent aster will surely become redundant. How will we defend against such threats? Not convinced by laser yet (conversation above), I'm guessing countermeasures and EW?

Meriv, The rafale free forums used to be excellent and were - apart from one notorious lunatic! - really friendly impartial. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if they're still there? Has been a while since I've been there and am pretty sure last time i tried the site was no longer active :( might be worth...

Tinman, I'm guessing you're talking about classified information? In which case fair enough I have no choice but to take your word for it as I have absolutely no access to anything not in public :( Is there Any point asking if typhoons did operate without growler support or rafales rafales didn't (b...

ACC, Many thanks, had been bugging me that one! :) interesting how one hears all about how the Spey phantoms were slower top end and up high but doesn't so often hear about the logical reasons for it and other side of the story. Media do seem tk sometimes assume these highly educated, experienced an...

That was my addition (IN CAPITALS, as some news on that front are to be expected... £40m is not a lot, though?) Aye, had guessed that's what you meant and liked the thinking, made sense to me. Like you say unfortunately £40m doesn't seem quite enough to get something at SPECTRE level (wasn't it som...

Tiffie news thru Flight Global: -10 Tranche 3 Typhoons are now operational with RAF squadrons, with the service having previously taken delivery of additional examples which have been placed into temporary storage. In a further boost for the RAF's Typhoon force, defence minister Sir Michael Fallon ...

Umm - Phantom?? Ohh, noo... it has to have something British on it. Let's put another engine on it (to make it slower and more expensive!) do you know the reason for the spey going in the FG1 ? there is a reason why they changed from the J79 and its not to do with uk jobs! I seem to remember readin...