Looks like an order from the Spanish Air Force for Spear is on the way...

I know it will reduced numbers for a while but would it be beneficial to send our F-35's to the states (soon or within the next few years) to get them upgrade to the TR3, this way all aircraft will be block 4 capable when it arrives. Like people have said even when block 4 arrives in 2028, all our ...

I would imagine that upgrades to the Tranche 1 airframes to bring them up to the latest spec will take a long while, so three squadrons max plus ocu. As I mentioned in an earlier post we won't see all 71 a/c at Block IV Lot 19 standard until 2031/32 at the earliest. But....if we're sensible we'll f...

mrclark303 wrote: ↑04 Apr 2024, 02:59 I believe 8 is the stated number for the OCU, it's a mix of synthetic and flight training.

As the fleet is growing I expect the demands on the OCU will be greater, so more a/c needed, what they end up with, say in 2030 is another matter.

sol wrote: ↑02 Apr 2024, 15:12

Timmymagic wrote: ↑02 Apr 2024, 11:47 Obviously then there are 7 delivered in 2025, probably split into 2 deliveries.

Last 7 are all from the same lot, Lot 17.

They are, but its likely some will be ready for transfer earlier in the year and given the need for a/c for 809 NAS they'll probably be trailed over earlier in the year.

Update on delivery schedule plus serials... https://twitter.com/NavyLookout/status/1772213965914812589?s=20 Just to note UK based F-35 fleet is 30 aircraft, not 31 as per the tweet, as 1 aircraft has been added to the Test Fleet at Edwards AFB (ZM165/BK-31). Not sure how long that would be for, it ...

TMF was a massive missed opportunity. It would have enabled us to really standardise across the Armed Forces. Now we've got the Navy going in all directions with 127, 114, 57mm, 40mm, 30mm....and the Army with 155, 105 and perhaps 127, plus 40CT, 30mm and whatever daft calibre they use for AA in th...

A bit of reversal of fortune as back in the day it was the thing to replace the RN 4.5 with the 155mm from AS90 as that was where all the exciting developments were meant to happen. TMF was a massive missed opportunity. It would have enabled us to really standardise across the Armed Forces. Now we'...

And that's been successful? Sending unreliable, ill-equipped hardware into battle? Perhaps when you want to measure your survivability in hours then it's an irrelevance if you manage 48 hours between maintenance. Why would we want to aim for that? The Maxims were actually Ukrainian...and incredibly...

Russia has neither taken AFV out of fields or taken 10,000 maxims out of a forgotten warehouse. In the very early days following the retreats from Kyiv, Sumy and Chernihiv they were pulling tanks from open storage with little to no refurbishment. 2 years in they tend to go to a tank repair facility...

Well, hopefully someone will remember the scramble for any useable weapons for Ukraine & decides to put the replaced L118s into storage, rather than scrap them. You never know when they might be needed again The issue there would be the ammo stocks...which is simulteneously L118's big advantage...

BAE doing very well...record profits of £2.7bn and order book ever increasing...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-ftse-100

Seems an odd calibre to choose why not 120mm like the guns fitted to most NATO tanks? Why use a 'Navy' size? The rational is greater range and payload, but also that as the main naval gun of the US and Allies that there will be lots of ammo developments, especially in terms of guided rounds. But......

The German shill still at it I see. What is your suggestion M- Shorad for Boxer infantry Battalions? Don't mean that in a critical way, simple curiosity? If an UK Infantry Battalion is being depleyed, potentially by air to Poland or Estonia to rapidly deploy as deterrance, makes sense to me to incl...

Firstly there is no reason they need to be in a HAS. The US doesn't put them in a HAS and whilst there is arguably some protection offered the UK CONOPS for F35 isn't based around HASs like it used to be. Secondly there is no modern muntions storage left at cottesmore, it was never maintained once ...

First good look at the Supacat/Asraam combination in Ukraine...

We'd need at least one other base and hundreds of people for this fleet alone to hit 138. Just out of sheer curiosity, if there were to be enough 'extra' F35's to justify it, which previous but currently non-active airfield is still close enough to being operational to be worth reactivating? Any of...

Hawk sized, 1,500nm combat radius, modular with sensor and weapon paloads carried internally in 2 bays. 1/10h the cost of a manned aircraft...very stealthy....allegedly demonstrator flying in 2 years... https://twitter.com/FlightGlobal/status/1754565698309742739?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eser...

SD67 wrote: ↑01 Feb 2024, 19:46 This could be interesting -

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... er-of-sky/

Delivery platform for Stingray?

Yes or the Future Lightweight Torpedo, which will either be an entirely new design or Stingray Mod2.

Australia has over 100 L119 in storage....are we just providing training facilties and this is in fact Australian (or someone elses) L119? Hi Timmy. Australia sold its HAMELs back to BAe Systems some years ago and, as the guns turning up in Ukraine have Australian cammo, I strongly suspect those ar...

F-35 value to UK ‘significantly higher' than before says Lockheed Martin https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/f-35-value-to-uk-significantly-higher-than-before-lockheed-martin I'd love to see their workings....bet they don't provide them to anyone....if MoD try and make the claim again th...

I think Abrams X was displayed with a fully hemispherical APS. Not really, it is presented with Trophy APS. Technically, T-14 Armata has vertical launching APS, together with horizontal one, but not sure if it is working (as there is no any public presentation of it) and, if it is, how effective it...

I'm still confused about this... Looks like Thales RapidRanger on URO Vamtac will be the Stormer replacement... RapidRanger on Vamtac is alread in service in Malaysia and Indonesia so might be ease of fielding...but does seem to ignore a Gun/Missile/EW solution like the Moog RiWP, which seems daft. ...