Interesting. On Astute the main payment milestone was handover, and it's a much lumpier product. Long lead items were generally purchased by the MOD directly and provided to BAE as segregated Project stock ie GFE. That's a different contract model. Aside from the Cannon which was GFx, GD have to bu...

"With an initial payment of £480 million, withheld since December 2020 due to challenges with noise and vibration, the MOD will resume payments to General Dynamics as the vehicles are scheduled to enter initial operating capability between July and December 2025" I'd still like to see har...

highlighted the progress made since the contract amendment in September What is this contract amendment for? Does it effect the fixed price nature of the contract? https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ajax-vehicles-on-course-for-new-delivery-times#:~:text=Subject%20to%20contract%20amendment%2C%20upda...

Look at all those hulls!

Did we do the "UK thing" and specially bespoke modify ours, so we can't simply fit the turret systems already developed, I wouldn't put it past the MOD.... Boxer is modular at the mission module, so you'd have to "simply fit" the IFV mission module. The IFV mission module with U...

Looks like market is split then with Thales LSAS cameras on Non-RDUK/RBSL, and REUK fitted on RBSL products.

There was an exchange at the defence committee with the VCDS and defence secretary that seemed to suggest there is insufficient challenger 2 hulls in an acceptable material state to perhaps event meet the 148 upgrade number let alone anymore than that. There was no pushback to this suggestion from ...

There was an exchange at the defence committee with the VCDS and defence secretary that seemed to suggest there is insufficient challenger 2 hulls in an acceptable material state to perhaps event meet the 148 upgrade number let alone anymore than that. There was no pushback to this suggestion from ...

For some reason I always thought the storage bins on the side opened down the way which is why there is a huge overhang. I know it's just aesthetics but always thought Ajax looked odd versus CV90 and Lynx that either don't use storage boxes on the side or have lower panels which makes them flush on...

The Army has procured this for the moment: https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/06/game-changing-anti-drone-weapon-sight-for-army-s-close-combat-soldiers/#:~:text=The%20capability%20can%20recognise%20a,other%20in%2Dservice%20individual%20weapons. Great as that is, I can see there being...

Little J wrote: ↑14 Nov 2023, 11:20 If V-280 is the long term goal, shouldn't we be hearing about tie ups with UK companies by now?


More Chinooks? Do we really need any more?

To make V-280 more expensive!?

I would have thought if UK was looking for a tilt rotor, and an expensive one, we'd be looking at AW609.

Whatever happened to the turrets, were the Canons removed and handed back to the MOD with the rest of the turret scrapped by LM? I am still hopefully they will be repurposed in an unmanned variant on boxer. Only the warrior prototype turrets were made. There was never a production contract for them...

With drones and the probability of swarm drone attacks shouldn't we also look at gun based systems to. Some of the lessons from Israel and Ukraine show the limitations of pure missile systems and the need for layered systems. Where it might be more cost effective to expend a couple of 30mm cannon r...

I can't understand why any infantry commander would b concerning themselves with something 45km away... I would agree that the first 15 km's is of the up most concern and that is why the greatest concentration of fire power is based within this zone however I believe ( and I may well be wrong ) tha...

I can't understand why any infantry commander would b concerning themselves with something 45km away...

You brought up the range for both, giving an assisted range for one and a unassisted one for the other. If you didn't mean for that to be a comparison, it didn't come across that way. And yet I didn't compare them. If anything I spoke about L118 range in relation to 155... Whatever little conversat...

Rocket assist (12km) vs base bleed (20km) or plain ballistic (8km) vs plain ballistic (17km). You're the one comparing rocket assist with plain. Um no, you've made the comparison. I told you the range of 120mm Mortar in relation to MA requirements... It's the great thing about forums, read back... ...

Not with regular ammunition, but the base-bleed ER shell would go over 20km (wiki cites 20.6km, Janes "over 20km") Maybe not quite 21km, but still, compare like with like. Base bleed range isn't a free lunch. So... You're not comparing like with like then. Why not!? And has about half the...

L118 doesn't hit 21km.

120mm mortar is helicopter carried.

Did I suggest sending air defence into a low intensity conflict? Why would we send deep fires into a low intensity conflict?

Can you at least discuss in good spirit, instead of being misleading?

When I said resources, I meant money and personnel. If you bin the light gun, what are you doing with the money and personnel? Re-equipping with the long range guns and missiles? I thought point two made that abundantly clear? Personally, I think that the light gun is still a pretty useful gun for ...

Seems like a strange way of presenting it. Would the 120mm mortars be in addition to the 81mm mortars at battalion or in addition? In addition. What would the RA be doing? Just counterbattery and interdiction? If the enemy gets within 5km of a manoeuvre unit the RA will down tools as it's not their...

mr.fred wrote: ↑10 Nov 2023, 12:31

RunningStrong wrote: ↑09 Nov 2023, 22:44 - Remove close support from RA. Give 120mm mortars to MA

RA = Royal Artillery, MA = ?

Manoeuvre Arm. That'll be the infantry/armour that the artillery are operating in support of.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ojRCMC4d9aHzb4siXpdcO?si=uyLo3SRvQUqUwXi10uTe3w Podcast, talks a lot about Artillery from training and the state of the army today. But some of the proposals are: - Remove close support from RA. Give 120mm mortars to MA - Rebuild Artillery Regiments around deep stri...

mrclark303 wrote: ↑09 Nov 2023, 14:36 I see, hopefully Boxer with a turret?

You and half the army can keep dreaming!

Maybe a 20-30mm remote weapon station.

They lot should end up being quite standalone, and aside from harnesses and IKEE you'd hope it could be fitted to another vehicle in future (still plenty of Bulldogs in service). God forbid we have to deploy obsolete Warriors on a combat operation with a sophisticated enemy. 20 years of ignoring ou...