yet just this year the USAF said they need support costs to reduce by 40% from what they current are to what was forecast. Isn't the referenced Typhoon prgrm target -30% = same ball park. The biggest significance of that being that the two have been independently (and both together with industry) a...

Claymore replacement is already happening, though that one fires "forward" over a wide arch. - there can't be that many companies in Finland making these sorts of things, so probs from the same factory (adjacent production line)? - these sorts as separate from small arms & artillery ro...

Halidon wrote:the same strategy people who brought you

Love it! The same Batman channel (and normally the same time of the year, too)

This is BusinessInsider's take on the speech [according to the i newspaper he also said that currency parity is a clear :D possibility... people are joining "my camp" in droves :lol: ] " Government chaos and wild currency swings are making the UK look more and more like a fledgling, s...

Playing with high stakes... for just a ten day difference
- or shall we up it, by a year

Can those turrets actually traverse? Well, the Swedish DE&S tells us: "Stridsfordonschassina som nu byggs på med granatkastarfunktion levererades redan 2003-2004. De var tänkta för påbyggnad med svensk-finska Amos-pjäser men projektet avbeställdes 2008. Chassina har sedan dess förvarats to...

A couple of points (thhough the ships might be bought from the trade, rather than be taken from the Points fleet): - the current commercial design -off the same base - is built with one deck more than the Points; presumably the draught is very important (with the flat bottom) for getting to places (...

The PM going, or the whole Gvmnt going?

ArmChairCivvy wrote:a GE (and the economy to be run by Mao's Little Red Book)

- makes for a new Cabinet, no?
- at that point who cares what kind of EU deal comes with it as we will have moved well beyond damage limitation

Same woes (budget-wise) on both sides of the Pond: deterrent (subs renewal) and carriers. Military.com on the latter: "The Navy is "all in" on the Ford-class carriers though, [Adm.]Geurts replied, estimating that the first of those ships would be ready by October following a series of...

In https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-closer-as-commons-fails-to-make-mind-up-on-brexit-11676853 this bit is not offered as the bottom line "does suggest, therefore, there are potentially ways out of this. Theoretically the prime minister could add a customs union to her deal . Given t...

Are the RN really that against operating anything called a "Corvette"? In the days of the deepest controversy around the LCS designs, the then-DefSec said "What the h@ll should we do; buy some corvettes instead?" - RN thinks the same - they just don't spell it out Leander is ent...

a hint that domestic legislation for a ‘Stormont lock’ would meet Bercow’s bar. - except that domestic legislation cannot over-rule international treaties; can be used the other way: to guarantee upholding the provisions of the latter Ms A Foster just blew this one out of the water... have to come ...

Sky Data ran a mini-survey of the alternatives being voted on and got very high (either side of 30%) "don't know" shares for most
- then there the ones who don't know that they don't know... wonder if any of those still amongst the MPs, too?

The speech reminding MPs that climate catastrophe get's forgotten in this mayhem brought an immediate change in priorities:
"John Bercow confirms that the ballot papers will be green. Earlier indications were that the ballot papers were pink."

the endless "democracy is dying" panic is nothing more than buzzwords. ... if not an orchestrated campaign. The themes peddled on both sides of the Atlantic have striking similarities. EDIT @qrtr to 5: "@faisalislam, of SkyNews: Speeches backing the options very good so far - extraor...

The design of the QEs being chinook capable in hanger and lifts also makes me think that the MOD have it in mind to - or at the time of design (so a while back) Osprey as an option (AEW, COD, CESAR...) was kept on the table? Why on earth would we want to base an LSS in the Carribbean - where is the...

I wonder if the 'just kidding' option (revoking Article 50) will make it to the further votes next Monday... April Fool's Day

V impressive :yawn: If anyone is wondering what is happening with all that action in front of the double barrels (there seems to be no use of the two, in quick sequence, to achieve simultaneous impact in the target area... as there is no computer to do those calcs ;) ) it is the "loading monkey...

say the British Army decides to stick a 120mm mortar turret [A]on the Warrior to replace the FV432(m) the they might as well stick the same turret on a Boxer variant in the Mechanise Battalions. And if we do that we could also purchase the Portee 120mm Mortar[C] that can go on the back of a vehicle...

Theresa May is to address a hostile environment, of her own making [the 1922 Committee] at 5 p.m. tomorrow.
- it is easy to make life tough, not so easy to get out of the predicament (if I were a Bible reader, I could supply a quote,; but, sorry, I am not)

Mary Poppins? We will see, will see "how MPs will force themselves into a forced choice" - which, admittedly, will be hugely complicated Over to HuffPost: As for a ‘People’s Vote’, one fascinating subplot yesterday was to hear Starmer and others talk about possibly leaving a second referen...

a free 4.5 inch is about as nailed on as anything Good that we can nail something down, in the "other place" they can't... I am not writing from the Hse of Lords either; just for clarity :) - I hear that we have about 20 - pls remind me again, how many surface combatants (not the 30 mm po...

Maritime power is the only one that can be persistent and fast (particularly if forward deployed). A great point (differentiator)! The MoD really needs to step on the gas a bit with their PR - this "a Division scale, multi-national, force on force live exercise" would have gone unnoticed ...

the greater range and lethal area would require more control than the 81mm. Yes. Also in those formations resupply should work fine. Whereas is more general 'infantry' use, for suppression, a metric ton of 81mm bombs yields twice as many splinters as the same weight of 120 mm... just that the light...

Now I know what makes a minister: Harrington puts it rather better than me (have been :( lacking in succinctness) "@SkyNewsPolitics Richard Harrington says a "minority of a minority in the Conservative Party led by mad economists who are totally discredited" believe that no-deal will ...