I didn't pick up on the Royal Marines aspect of the purchase initially. I know the RM are looking to separate themselves somewhat from the army after effectively being treated like an elite infantry regiment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe that will reduce the logistics issues a bit. On the other han...

It's a drain on logistics is the obvious reason why.
He wasn't criticising the round itself.
If the LMG's are equipped with 7.62 what is going to happen when the designated marksman needs resupplied with 6.5 and all he can find is crates of 7.62?

This is interesting, a lot of people think Ajax is too big for Recon. People have mentioned Jaguar as an other way of doing things....turns out that Jaguar is a bit of a monster as well... https://twitter.com/TotherChris?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor This is news to people?...

It's hard to know as a lot of it will depend on the capacity/availability of skilled labour.
The lead times for the French and Italian Fremm frigates would probably give a decent idea, maybe a little bit longer at the T26 is a larger ship but not by much.

Some videos appear to show a thermal sleeve on the CTA40 cannon and others don't. I wonder if the initial trials versions did not include one for testing but the production variants will do? Always seemed very strange just to have the bare barrel exposed unless it was to make inspection during trial...

I wonder if the MK2 variant will make less use of composite materials to bring down the unit price that killed off any export hopes for the original version. Apart from the price I always thought it was a solid design for the miv role that could easily be stretched into a 6x6 variant of required. It...

Won't be long until these things are fully autonomous and make decisions using AI to prevent the signals being jammed or intercepted. Scary thought.
The drone is probably cheaper than the missiles.

According to the post the UK has no intention of selecting the new US round. I'm not convinced its performance is significant enough to justify it as a replacement considering the extra cost and complexity of the round. I'm sure the army has spent a lot of time analysing the lessons learned in Ukrai...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/gagadget.com/en/weapons/281852-the-uk-and-poland-will-develop-the-camm-mr-anti-aircraft-missile-with-a-launch-range-of-over-100-kilometres-and-a-amp/ Looks like the UK Poland joint venture will be called CAAM-MR with up to 100km range. I assume the booster will be signif...

I wonder if this MRV 2 selection and contract will be signed before the next election. The Tories know they are on the way out so not much stopping them from signing up to expensive fixed defence contracts similar to what labour did with the carriers. It's bound to be an off the shelf purchase given...

I didn't realised they mounted a warrior turret onto Patria, is there any detail on what was included in the box launcher? I'm sure it was very functional but hardly a work of art. The Nexter remote turret looks tidy with the CTA cannon, it will be interesting to see if they develop their own specul...

This part has me in stitches, He said: “Some individuals showed a clear desire to resolve problems at their level, and not to bother overworked leaders unless strictly necessary. “This was due in part to the ‘can do’ attitude of those involved and a cultural sense that elevating problems was a sign ...

As others have pointed out, integrating storm shadow on the SU24 in a matter of months does make a mockery out of the decision not to integrate storm shadow onto F35. I suspect the biggest delay is updating the software to be able to fly the aircraft with 1 cruise missile under each wing and get it ...

Why do you think it would have been only one person involved? Surely there would have been dozens of people reviewing the bids. In any case, such appointments are usually a matter of public record, so shouldn't you be able to name them? The decision was announced by Philip Hammond a week after he t...

BAE had already received certification on their manned and unmanned turrets and had decades of experience working with warrior, when they said the turret needed replaced while it was a more expensive option it was significantly less risky. If that is remotely true, how in the world would it have be...

BAE had already received certification on their manned and unmanned turrets and had decades of experience working with warrior, when they said the turret needed replaced while it was a more expensive option it was significantly less risky. When LM came along and said they could fit the CTA cannon in...

I'm surprised BAE did not make a much larger song and dance about the state of warrior lep when it became clear GDUK and LM were not capable of delivering it in time it budget. Pretty sure it would have been delivered in 2016 had they won the initial competition. Warrior CSP was LM only. Ah yes, so...

Why would the UOR purchases for Iraq and Afghanistan have impacted the warrior lep when the UOR purchases came out of a separate treasury pot? Would the UOR vehicles have been required if we stayed the course and received boxer back in 2012 like the Germans did? I'm surprised BAE did not make a much...

Ajax will be 13 years late if not more and that's after 10 years were wasted selecting the thing. Its not just the vehicle itself that gets it a hard time, its the fact the British army is relying on 60 year old APC's that have no business being anywhere near a war zone, at anytime in the last 20 ye...

Does this applications outside of what NLAW delivers or why is the MOD purchasing two light anti tank missiles?
Is it cheaper?

It will be interesting to see what happens, if an order for the new Ranger units is small the army will not want to deal with the logistics of the 6.8x51 ammunition. If the US fully commits to the new round and issues it across all of their infantry units, eventually the UK will want to do the same....

I don't think the Apaches day is up by a long shot. The Apache is significantly more advanced than the KA50 in terms of sensor fusion and networking and their pilots and military planners are significantly more experienced and better trained. The latest Apaches can network with multiple UAVs via the...

It looks like £3bn of the £5bn defense uplift is being used to fund the submarine programmes, hopefully to speed up development on the future SSN program and £2bn to replace what has been sent to Ukraine. I assume that is to fund this interim Archer purchase and any MLRS replacements, but the army i...

I wonder if they will go down a split work share route for all 12-16 UK/AUS subs where barrow builds the rear and less sensitive sections are built in Australia and each nation will completing final assembly locally. Future SSN designs will be well advanced by now when we know the reactor and common...

Maybe interim solution means 25 year service span going forward with strategic 40-50 when you include a 10 year procurement process.