Pseudo wrote: and force them to lease them back on highly profitable terms to the hedge funds that would end up owning them

and his pal, this Ronald McDonald, would offer a bridging deal... for as long as we like. At Cost, +50%

Well there is my brief(ish) sunny side up view of what amy happen in broad strokes It does feel nice to write a possitive piece and even with the sun, and a huge financial "jack pot" ... you still managed to shrink the army :?: : The majority of the "Light" role Infantry Battali...

shark bait wrote:FREMM cost's around €1,000m/unit @ 2028 prices.
FTI will cost around €760/unit @ 2028 prices.

Not insignificant.

If you omit the cost of anchors, and their chains, you can slip one T-31 into each difference
5 FTIs and 5 T-31s for 5 FREMMs?

OK, what is the picture? They (in this case Jeremy Hunt) are already colouring it in. Just to put the picture frame onto the wall, or more like it: pointing the camera in the right direction for the piccie, before taking the crayons out: "the Russian and Chinese regimes increasingly resemble ea...

This in interesting...the US doesn't buy too many of these. GQM-163A Coyote supersonic sea skimming target... and now Coyote II for other uses. Did I see some vectored thrust on the back end of it, in the piccie that went with the announcement? - a supermanouevrable loyal wingman. Lacking in range,...

if the UK went for JSM on ships and aircraft the Norgies might actually fund the torpedo tube launched JSM for subs.. Them co-building (and then training) the new subs with the Germans I think upped the probability much more than any UK decision would. - as the hulls will be built where the special...

topman wrote: interest in defence right around the time of a leadership election

The shrinking membership that in the end selects the leader is not quite a representative sample of the population at large.

Tempest414 wrote: As I have said before in my book there is enough work on the MOD's books to keep 5 yards open. In general I would agree with that. The key is to make that sustainable in the future We tend to do stop and start: getting the T45s out of the way, in a hurry, to be able to start with ...

The money comes with the investment, not the strategy (though someone in the Civil Serice will have to be paid to "look after" the policy In this case, a trading entity (of special kind, the alphabet soup for describing its status comes close to the good old COCOM): Director Ships, DE&...

The gap between what a T26 can handle and what a B3 River can handle is vast. The OPV can't step up without putting the crew at major risk, so the T26 has to step down, taking away from already meagre forces available to defend the carrier task group. Let's face it, aside from our submariners (1600...

More clarification, BBC quotes on April 29 "European Commission spokeswoman, Mina Andreeva said they would "not negotiate mini-deals"["]
- at some point it became fashionable to call 6-12 mnth 'stand-still' arrangements "mini-deals"
... shock absorbers, more like

Sir John Parkers idea with the NSS was to sell the T31's at around the 15 year mark, before their first major refit but I don't believe this makes financial sense. Just look at how much is being transferred from the T23's to the T31's, very little. The sophisticated technology would have lost the b...

Pseudo wrote:and it's been hard-eurosceptic nutters all the way in between.

I do accept that you probably know more (than me) about that intervening period.

Leaves me confused...
the first one out, after 18 mths of upgrades

So did we actually have one (or more?) on Shader, flying and doing stuff (on Ops)?

even if it's only an external carry option for them. In an anti-ship role JSM's range relegates stealth of the launch platform to be of secondary importance and leaves the stealth of the missile, its evasive end manoeuvres (including simultaneous hits from very different directions) and its 'big-hi...

isn't as you'd contended Well, I did mean to write (looking back :D :D ) legitimacy, not legacy... would that help? That's been its purpose since day one in 1993 Now this quote takes me back to the linked word (with the first quote): "hijacked" - the main reason for writing the post in th...

ArmChairCivvy wrote:cover the costs of the group's researcher [note: singular?].

So not a budget with this many 0'000 figures after the meaningful one
- or may be they are very lavish with their do's and gatherings, who knows?

hankering after a 2020 SDSR. The mid-term review that was meant to be a sprint has turned into a marathon: will it be completed 'in-year'... before 2020 :lol: :cry: A good run-thru of the challenges left for Penny (MDP 2.0 is supposedly running?): "The threat does not just stem from Russia. As...

with the aim of unwinding the political, legal and social integration of the UK with the EU or leaving it altogether. So nothing much has changed. True; officially their stated aim is to support a Brexit "that works for everybody". Hmmm BBC has done some research: "European Research ...

Sad, especially in the light of those two needing to be freed went into an area which had a 'kidnap warning' slapped on.

abc123 wrote:I'm asking what's "WAKE DETECTION"?

Once you detect it (from afar), then you can fire wake-homing torpedoes into it
- ooops; we don't have any such

Lord Jim wrote:UAV/UCAV Ground Station
UAV Launch Vehicle

Warhogs were briefly earmarked for this role, but then instead sold for a song.

abc123 wrote:I don't consider them as a good idea.

Neither do I; they would have been "the" blunder - or another one, and only narrowly missed.

Save for China, Trump's trade wars are with allies: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/768/cpspr ... ffs-nc.png

we could have the first step achieved by the middle of the 2020s and the first new "Medium" Brigade operational by 2030. that would add 7 years to the current 'marching plan' which in itself is not the quickest transformation ever seen. IMHO Medium Brigades= British Army Blunder of the 21...

What all this demonstrates is a wide choice of different sonar suites for different jobs. The T26 is specifically designed for passive detection in the open ocean, and equipped with the very capable CAPTAS-4 to do the job. Is there an opportunity for a frigate fitted with a modern compact active so...