Errr.....P-8 number 7 has been named...

But I do wonder with only 7 boats in the water, what are the chances of a long term presence staging out of FBW a bit like the OPV’s once all the nuclear infrastructure is in place to handle boats long term Very little realistically. The UK SSN force will actually drop to 6 boats temporarily in due...

Perhaps why Zephyr back in the US, US Army interest, Project Convergence will include testing the Zephyr following its recent testing at Yuma. Possibly, but I suspect the reason is due to the break up of a Zephyr on launching at Airbus' site in Australia (not at Woomera). I wonder if they discovere...

PhillyJ wrote: Big event on PWLS that day, nipper has to be in his nbr1's all day!

Thats the Pacific forum thing isn't it?

Looks like Italian Eurofighter will get the AESA radar CaptorE MK2 Yes they confirmed a month ago, not a massive surprise as Leonardo are Italian, but they were umming and ahhing over Radar 0 at one point. The first 2 Italian built Typhoon's for Kuwait, equipped with AESA Radar 0, took to the sky f...

This all looks impressive. But unless I'm missing something, it does seem very dependent on clear skies for most (all?) of its imagery. So, fine for the Arizona desert, but less so for eg wintertime NW Atlantic conditions. Just like all imagery systems. But there are lots of other payloads in devel...

To be honest I think this tally's with what sensible people have been expecting from the Israeli's. External tanks, no mention of CFT's (for obvious reasons), networking system changes to integrate with their own systems. Suspect they might try and integrate Python 5 on the external rail at most, fo...

Just a quick note on the imagery quality. Zephyr 8 in its original configuration delivered imagery to NIIRS 6 standard. It should now be capable of delivering NIIRS 8 level imagery.. NIIRS 6 Imagery standards Distinguish between models of small/medium helicopters (e.g., HELIX A from HELIX B from HEL...

Flight testing was in Yuma, Arizona. 2 Zephyr 8's were in use and in the air at the same time (N467TN and N469TN) along with another earlier Zephyr variant (I believe it was the Zephyr 7)...both the 8's are listed as owned by Bank of Utah Trustee...at least one of the two is UK MoD owned so this mus...

Plenty of BMT designs that can carry unmanned platforms...ranging from cheap and cheerful to more complex. 4 each of these and the RN would be set for decades... Salvas - Diving support, USV and UUV support, Minehunting, Surveying...what more could you want. Could even do heavy repair on it like Dil...

The T26 mission bay springs to mind. The capability that folks on here are dying to scrap The Mission Bay is the crowning glory of T26. It makes all other surface combatants out there look horrifically unprepared for the unmanned future (apart from the Independence Class LCS...USN had the right ide...

Some rather unexpected but very good news....spotted by HI Sutton. Looks the RN may have another, more advanced XLUUV to play with shortly....if we're really lucky we might see an order for the Moray in due course... https://twitter.com/Strikepod/status/1447923447649218565 https://msubs.com/unmanned...

BAE Inc 11th October PR another option for C-UAS, successfully tested its APKWS 2.75"/70mm at Yuma. APKWS uses semi-active laser guidance and recently modified its software for the rocket to strike a target at a steeper angle of attack, increasing max range by 30%, current range 1.1 to 5 km wh...

I don't think any of the sailors would have ben laughing when the Kamikaze hit the ship with a bombs of up to 800 kg despite taking numerous hits from the Oerlikon 20mm and Bofors 40mm shells. An anti-ship missile is the modern day equivalent of an unmanned Kamikaze. No one is talking about using 3...

Quick update...the next 3 x F-35B to be delivered to the UK have flown already: BK-22 - ZM156 - First flight 29/06/21 BK-23 - ZM157 - First flight 03/08/21 BK-24 - ZM158 - First flight 02/09/21 If the delay to delivery of the next 3 F-35B, mentioned by Air International that were due this year, has ...

Seems a lot of hours for the number of airframes we have, I hope we are not knackering them out too quickly? Given the 3 test aircraft and BK-03 (the first UK 'combat capable' aircraft delivered in 2013) have been in service for close to an average of 9 years each I'd expect them each to have racke...

I am wondering if the fitting of 30mms were cancelled, and instead it was decided to wait until the 40mm is in service. We'd be seeing an order going in for them, which we haven't, and the order has been placed for the Bofors 40mm and 57mm already. They're not really a stock item so if you want the...

Ron5 wrote:So anonymous denizens of the online forums. Like us.

No named people...serving.

Lomger view of takeoff and climb out

https://twitter.com/AirbusDefence/status/1447507536672874507?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet - "plus associated lighter test aircraft" - Sounds like previous Zephyr generations being used alongside to prove flight control laws From the video it looks like this took pl...

Who is speculating? There have been a few people online (who would know) who have said as much. The below image of the Ise with the CSG pretty much confirms it. US CVN's don't have the full Prairie/Masker set up, just the Prairie part (the prop part). It appears Ise has both. https://i.imgur.com/7A...

RN is buying 10 (2 each for 5 hulls) Bofors 40mm gun for the Type-31 frigates. It can handle 3P rounds, which is "Pre-fragmented, Programmable, Proximity- fused". In other words, a single 3P round can do, air-burst mode, proximity mode, and time-gated proximity mode. It is good to counter...

seaspear wrote:Interesting comparing the wakes of the ships the Izumo class appears to create a lot of disturbance in its wake compared to the Q.E class ,is this something detectable?

The speculation is she's running her Prairie/Masker system.

Its wrong how much F-35 lift fan work RR has shifted to the States. Was it ever really here though? For years the 15% UK contribution figure was allowed to be repeated time and time again, when it never stood up to the closest examination. Now people are pretty certain that the built in the UK figu...