Won't white paint have a lower heat transfer than black, or grey? Therefore a white roofed plane will run hotter than a black/grey one!

Small correction. The only Swiftsure class boat to have a conventional propeller was the first (HMS Swiftsure itself) all the rest had propulsor (pump-jet). IIRC this caused Swiftsure to have a slightly taller upper rudder than the rest of the class because of the torque from the propeller.

A towed array does not like a "drift" as it ends up vertical in the water!

20mm to 25mm size difference is 25/20 ^ 3 = 1.95. For the same form shape a 25mm round is twice the throw weight of a 20mm. I remember when the USMC got the AV8A with the 30mm Aden cannon they were stagged by the impact of 30mm rounds vs the 20mm they were used to!

When comparing rounds just be careful with the effect of calibre. For the same form factor of the bullet a 27mm round is 2.46x the mass of a 20mm round (simple cube of the calibre)

I love this wishful thinking. At no time while Devonshire was with Ark Royal in 1973 (about 3 months IIRC) did we have an SSN with us. As a very enthusiastic Midshipman whowas going into submarines I would have remembered that!

I hate to bring some real history here, but........ I remember that in 1973, when I was on Devonshire, we were Ark Royal's escort for her West Indies deployment. If I remember correctly we were the only permenant escort she had for the deployment. I would expect a T45 to be normally assigned to a de...

How many F35s makes it finished? 6 or 36?

Standard crew on older SSNs was 98 IIRC. We could sail with 125 on board, being limited by air purification equipment. We nearly always sailed with the 125, made up of Part 3 trainees and other special mission riders. There is always a request to carry more than the standard crew. Many of our riders...

Confused? The standard cycle with a double crewed SSBN would be 8 weeks on patrol, 4-5 weeks maintenance and work up and then 8 week patrol. In theory two SSBNs in full commission could maintain one on station, with third in deep maintenance.

The reason for not carrying a full warload was not because there were not enough weapons but the TSC (Torpedo Storage Compartment) was used as an accommodation space. This changed when Harpoon came as that made the TSC a magazine under RN regs. So we started hot bunking.

The S & T classes had 5 tubes as with the 2001 array on the "chin" position you could not have the classic 6 parallel tubes that previous classes had. The previous classes 2001 array was on the "forehead " position so the tubes were below them. On the S & T boats there we...

All submarines noise signature increases with speed, including Seawolf's. The issue is how rapidly it increases. This is a function of the propulsion system. In the case of the UK we used a propulsor (ducted propeller) for all submarines from the second Swiftsure class (1975) and used rafts for the ...

Has it been considered to add a few Sea Ceptors (8?) to them. I have the impression that the Sea Ceptor requires virtually no maintenance and has a surface to surface mode IIRC.

The relook time at any point on earth is about 4 days. The Germans have three in orbit which gives you a virtually daily potential any where in the world!

One key question surely is whether we ever expect to have both CVFs at sea at once? Falklands 2.0?

In the Falklands the dominant issue was keeping the carriers safe. Given the performance and simplicity claimed for Sea Ceptor (nearly as bad a name as Sea Slug!) it would seem simple to put a limited number (4 × 4?) on the carriers to improve their defence?

In terms of surveillance, what about radar satellites? South Africa has just bought a Kondor-E S-band SAR satellite from Russia, launched last December. It has a resolution of 1-2 meters and total cost to South Africa was about $120m, including ground station. Obviously UK could not buy from the Rus...

Given the greater radius of action of an F35B over the F18, does this make USS Wasp with 6 F35B on board more powerful than a US CVN

The real cost of operations is manpower. Given the incredibly low staffing level of the CVF will they cost more to run than HMS Ocean?

While the construction is taking a different order for PoW vs QE, have there been any design changes?

Given the original SSBNs (in the 1960s) were planned to refuel every 4-5 years and there were to be 2 SSBNs on station for 70% of the time I believe that the UK only needs 3 SSBNs. In cost and manpower terms this should release enough for two extra SSNs (SSBNs have two crews - or did in my day). The...

I know it is off topic but given there is no refuelling of the successor submarines I would rather see 3 SSBNs (still maintaining the continuous patrol at sea) and two more Astute's (making 9).

I did not realise the Type 23s were so fast, 34.4kts! How much difference did the new anti-fouling paint make?

The UK election early results show a Conservative led government. The only hard statements on defence is Trident and commissioning both QE and PoW.