Here’s a theory. - we end up buying a BAE version of the Bayraktar drone as part of a big defence deal with Turkey, Wallace and Truss were there last week talking industrial cooperation.

I think we’re all underestimating the reputational damage to a firm like GD if a reference customer takes them to court. This is the sort of thing that costs the CEO his job pension share options etc. Whereas what is the damage to us? Worst case we meet them half way and get a billion or so. Serious...

tomuk wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 06:17

Scimitar54 wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 00:51 Solution: If one disco cannot meet the demand, then obviously two or more may be required!

Are there any good clubs in Adelaide?

Hindley Street is not quite “The Gaza Strip” but it can get lively

Reality check - Israel is an outlier on many levels. We’ve been the only tier 1 partner on F35 for 20+ years and we still don’t have Brimstone or Storm Shadow integrated. IMO if Germany want to buy Tempest they can negotiate some local assembly as part of their purchase contract just as the saudis d...

They didn't let Australia or Japan get anyway near F22, even as plain old customers.

Germany has a big checkbook but they also have a big industrial appetite. They've just set out a different and inferior radar purely for nationalistic / industrial reasons. I believe they're still blocking Typhoon sales to Saudi Arabia. German involvement these days probably rules out any sales to E...

I would have no issue with both Germany and Spain joining the development phase of Tempest. It would be the production phase where I would want to lock both down to whatever number they decided to purchase to ensure we did not repeat the issues that arose in the Eurofighter programme. I see these t...

Well apart from Jaguar they’ve developed everything else on their own, and sold mostly outside Europe, “solo SCAF” would be business as usual. Maybe India comes in attracted by the nuclear angle

It'll be fascinating to see this play out. I get the feeling that the interests of Dassault the company (still 62% family owned) are not exactly aligned to those the French state. The family alone are worth of 20 billion +, that's alot of "F off" power.

I think Dassault sees Rafale cleaning up in the mid 2030s when virtually every other Western jet is out of production then they build SCAF themselves. It's not a bad business strategy- why rush if the thing is still selling?

Looks like the Italian sale of 24 x Typhoon to Egypt is coming close to completion...good news for Leonardo and BAE, probably MBDA as well... https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-italy-arms-deal-close-completing?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Social_Traffic&utm_co...

On further reflection, there are many stages at which you could step into between capability requirement and solution. Close to or at the capability end, you have "Stop Enemy doing what he is doing" and you then solutionise from there through "by dropping HE in fragmenting cases on h...

Yep, it must be a tough call for Dassault - do they share their technology with Airbus DE, or just cut out the middleman and email the blueprints directly to the Kremlin

Let’s face it Dassault’s core market is “people not allowed to buy the JSF”.

Tempest414 wrote: ↑31 May 2022, 18:12
As it now looks like we will have to keep what we have which is

400 Jackal
70 Coyote
400 Foxhound
250 Husky
150 Panther
300 Mastiff
150 Ridgebacks

But what about next year after they've all been donated to Ukraine?

Yes - I read Oct 2024 is penciled in as main gate. The Rolls / IHI engine demonstrator is aiming for 2026, so that fits with having a flying prototype by the end of the decade. A couple of years production gap between Typhoon and Tempest in the early 2030s could almost be convenient, to allow breath...

Wow - sounds like Battersea power station - perfect place for a billion pound inner city residential property redevelopment

Reposting this as a friend in industry has told me that the claim over welds has been misunderstood and not accurate, please disregard that. I've been told BAE has submitted a planning application to drain the wet basin at their Govan shipyard in order to construct a covered build hall. It is hoped...

Personally looking at the transcript I thought the union rep talked alot of sense.

South Korea isn't Glasgow in Winter

It doesn't get away from the basic problem - the ships are being built before they're fitted out. Scotsdoun or Govan - choose one. Please.

Jdam wrote: ↑19 May 2022, 20:49 And this has become a problem now because?

Sound like excuses to me, they have been building ships on the slipways in Glasgow and welding them for decades (maybe nearly 80 years) and now it has become a problem.

"Wrong type of weld"

https://committees.parliament.uk/oralev ... 10235/pdf/

Recent evidence from Sir John Parker on the refreshed shipbuilding strategy

There's an interesting titbit about the slow build of T26, apparantly being built outside is causing the welds to deform because of the temperature changes .

Fantastic news, this means it really is going to happen. There's no way Japan will let this slip given the threat environment.

donald_of_tokyo wrote: ↑04 May 2022, 02:24 HMS Spey and Indonesian Bung Tomo class corvette. (from HMS Spey twitter mobile.twitter.com/HMS_Spey/status/1521098923749691394)

Aren't they disgtantly related? The Bung Tomo class are the Brunei ships that went to arbitration, variant of the then GEC F2000 family

The US has previously gone for very capable but very epensive drones. Primarily for conflicts against insurgents rather than a peer on peer conflict. Against a peer rival the high rate of attrition of such valuable assets would in all likelihood be unsustainable for the UK. Ideally the UK can devel...