ArmChairCivvy wrote:so how many factories for the UK?

Radway Green produces 5.56 and 7.62 (one million rounds per day capacity). Also produces 105mm, 20MM 30mm RARDEN, 30mm KCB and 40mm CTA, 81mm mortar, 4.5inch Naval, and 155mm arty

Just a couple of the things the UK want which are not part of an ordinary FTA: -They want access to horizon program -They want to become part of the Lugano-convention -The Uk wants access to EU databases like SIS-2 The only one that has any real relevance to an FTA is the Lugano Convention, in that...

FYRD = First Yeomanry Reserve Division

The French also seem to have their knickers in a twist over the Cayman Islands as well

'enough' is c. 150, which makes for 2+1 rgmnts allows for the 48 strength, It did occur to me that 3 Type 44 C3 (i.e. 14-vehicle Sabre Squadrons) Regiments, each with an additional 12 Ajax (organised as a recce troop within each squadron to bring them up to 18 vehicles ) might be a reasonable outco...

What? No HMS Cayman?

No, I was thinking in general, not Cape class. There are a couple of existing Damen designs in the 42-66m range that might be suitable, as well as the old Vita/ Super-Vita designs. Damen are quite happy to license out the build. where to build them, do you think? Appledore would have been a great c...

Some follow-up on the creation of a Cayman Regiment - looks like it will be a volunteer, reservist unit, with up to 150 personnel (only 5 or 6 full-time), trained for support to the Civil Authorities role (primarily engineering, by the looks of it). https://caymannewsservice.com/2019/12/governor-rec...

Zero Gravitas wrote:I wonder what issues could have made Whitehall decide to leak stories about odd behaviour in real time for Patel, that they kept secret for years for white, male lefty Blunkett?

Surely you are not insinuating that something might have "coloured" their opinion?

Is it me, or does that report not quite make sense? From a sample of 11 patients from China, from a region nearly 500 miles outside Wuhan - (I thought they contained the virus), they identify 33 strains of CV-19 and decide that Europe got the deadlist strain. And WTF is "ultra-deep sequencing&q...

Immerge is fine. It's the opposite concept of emerge (and yes, I did have to look it up to confirm it). Immersed is more common, I agree :) verb (used without object), im·merged, im·merg·ing. to plunge, as into a fluid. to disappear by entering into any medium, as the moon into the shadow of the sun...

ArmChairCivvy wrote:however, this will not be the last we hear of the matter?

The one thing that you can guarantee is that, if he wins, TV News will talk about little else for weeks, if not months, on end. If he loses, it will likely not even get a mention.

The difference between a Tactical nuke and a Strategic nuke is neither the means of delivery or the size of the yield. The difference is the choice of target. If someone did attack Portsmouth with a nuclear weapon however it was delivered, SRBM, MRBM, ICBM cruise missile or a straight forward bomb ...

I think we'll see a fairly rapid bounce initially from the trough, making up say 40-70% of output, with the remainder taking a year or two I don't disagree with that, if everything goes as hoped. My fears about whether it's a "V" or a "W" are based on a number of as yet uncertai...

Ron5 wrote:I vote for binning the requirement and spending the money on more F-35B.

I suspect that firing F35's at our opponents might work out a tad expensive. Spectacular, though

So, will it be a "V"... as our lovely D says - or will it be a "U" what I dread ... and when I put this all to a Dr. friend he said it will be an "L". We must all hope he was joking! I fear it'll be a "W" (and hopefully not a "WWW" or a "UUU&qu...

If anything good at all is coming out of the pandemic, it is that globally post-truth populist politicians are starting to be seen for what they are. Are you sure? I guess it depends on what you define as populist, but I presume that you mean Trump and Johnson (apologies if you don't - I've been re...

One of those odd things that occurs to me - can an APS discriminate between direct fire and indirect fire that may spray it with (possibly penetratiing) fragments?

Personally, I think that's pretty darned good after such a long period of the RN being out of the business. It will be an impressive sight. Indeed it would be, but if that deployment is going to be a FoN operation in the SCS, and in light of what has happened over the last few months, then I would ...

Marine Scotland has three unarmed fishery protection vessels and two patrol aircraft https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Compliance/resources/Vessels https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Compliance/resources/Aircraft I believe the RN Fishery Protection Squadron is available in all UK waters, but norm...

ArmChairCivvy wrote:All publicity seems to be directed to getting RN Wildcats up to speed for dealing with swarming boats, though.

The RM's have been trialling/ training with them in the ground to air role as well

Lord Jim wrote:Could the three round Starstreak pedestal launcher be adapted to fire both missiles?

I believe they both have the sam eform factor and can use the same launcher

You could also use it in an anti-air role As I understand it, LMMs strength is that it is a) cheap, b) simple to use, c) man-portable, and d) can be used against light armour, drones and helicopters equally, making it a highly useful infantry weapon. I can see it's main use being to counter small d...

not sure how either crew have their "deck/naval ops qualification" Maybe they will be getting a crash course (Sorry! An unfortunate choice of words there....) on the way across the Atlantic. Even with a bit of basic training, I guess they will be limited to operating when the ship is moor...

Could see it being used as a non virus treatment facility in a limited way. Indeed - often forgotten in all the hoo-ha about CV-19 is the fact that people are still getting sick for other reasons. It all depends on what is best in the circumstances (and I agree with your point about ships being non...