Worth pointing out that the majority of the RAF's SEEDCORN programme personnel are either crewing legacy P3s (or derivatives) with Aus, NZ Canada and US or P8's with the US. WRONG ;) http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk-details-collaboration-on-p-8-triton-platforms-397835/ 20 of the 32 Seed...

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk-urged-to-acquire-new-maritime-patrol-aircraft-413271/ And another one pushing the requirement and highlighting the SDSR as the pivotal moment as expected. It does feel like that they are keeping the story hot so thay can justify the need and the selected...

the book scram has some interesting things to say about BN Pity we didn't replace the Belvedere with them in the 60's early 70's but better late than never We did (well almost) in 1967 we ordered 15 CH-47B to replace the Belvedere for the RAF East of Suez, XV841-XV855, but the order was cancelled 9...

Actually i'm not too sure about that, i suspect most deployments the RAF will send out a deployment for a few week of intense air ops, but are unlikly to do the whole tour. The mixed manning of the F-35 units, familarity with the QEC and chance to do something different will probably result in a hig...

Its not just Russian Subs, the Type 45 will be tracking the Russian Bears that will be snooping too

Anyway they has conducted studies to fit Sea Ceptor to the QECs, its not part of the build spec as yet and won't be as it may delay or increase the cost of the build, plus Sea Ceptor has not yet been fitted to a Type 23 and proven its worth as yet. However because its been studied and costed, should...

The rumours are definately being stied up about the MPA buy, as thats three tabloids with the same story in a matter of weeks. I guess its earmarked as urgent gap filler in the SDSR 2015, and with the Tories winning the election the SDSR (which has been on-going since last year) will be quickly fini...

Er, no. It was down to partner nations having no urgency. F35 was to replace Harrier. Nothing is replacing tornado and the DPOC money to replace tornado has been ploughed into F35. Another point to bear in mind, when Tornado goes we'll be down to 5 offensive sqns. With QRA north and south, plus the...

Technically the Sea Harrier F/A2 is still in Royal Navy service, just as a non-airworthy operational ground trainer at Culdrose.

Thanks SKB! Does anybody know when the deck coating is due to go on? It may well be one of last things to go on, as they are using the flight deck space whilst they fit out the interior, so they won't be ready to paint till its been cleared and prepared. Given the nature of the paint material i gue...

Status of the development; state of the british programme, and a word on plans for british weapons integration in Block IV: http://ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.it/2015/04/an-f-35-update.html How do you gauge the ongoing Bulkhead saga Gabriele ?, for all the other progress we still have a main b...

12:00 Forward Island update: Strathdon and Strathglass tugs are now in Scottish waters again, currently just entering into the Firth of Forth. 14:30 Not far to go, the tugs are just north-east of Edinburgh. 15:30 Haven't budged an inch in an hour. Either the site is broken or they're waiting for a ...

The Future MPA should be part of the Navy and the Fleet Air arm. Won't happen as Manpowers too tight now anyway, although i suspect they have a bigger part to play to ensure the RAF maintain the MPA role rather than let mission creep steal them away for too many other jobs. As to which MPA, i don;t...

I suppose this should really be in politics as its governmet led based on the ploicy of the next govt in power, its financial backing and our defensive stance. I have a feeling this next SDSR will be rather different, it won't have Afghanistan hanging round its neck anymore, it should fine tune matt...

It was my understanding that "not renewed" just meant keeping the current hardware going rather than upgrading or replacing. Current boats have been worked hard and will soon reach the end of their design life. Not renewing them and limping on with increasingly elderly equipment will inev...

Aprils newsletter is quite interesting, we see that most of the major blocks in build are on progress and nearing completion which is good to hear. Did SKB spot the comment that all catwalks delivered have now been installed including the gun platform on sp02. That sounds to be ahead of schedule com...

So any news on the voyage of the fwd Island to Rosyth, i know its taking the southern route, but we don't seem to follow it with baited breath as we did watching QE being assembled.