The story of the existing record that John provided a link to is a cracking read...well worth the time...

https://www.damninteresting.com/the-unc ... -hacienda/

Set your alarms...they're definitely going for it...6.5 days to go....

Still that would mean UK would buy those launchers, not just getting them from Norway. They could easily buy US M270A0 and modernise it to M270A2 standard or directly buy completely new M270A2. If the Norwegian's got rid they'd give us a good price...plus all they'd need to do is stick them on the ...

Any change of more from Norway to replace them? The Norwegian's have 9 left (after the 3 given to the UK). They've been in storage since 2005, so are now technically useless for the Norwegian's unless they are upgraded to GMLRS capable as Norway is a signatory of the Cluster Munitions ban). In effe...

What's the difference between the himas and the m270 that UK has , cheers in advance HIMARS has 6 rockets in a single pack, wheeled, with a slightly newer fire control system Uk's M270B1 has 12 rockets in 2 packs, tracked, more heavily armoured, slightly older (but still modern fire control) The Uk...

56 days airborne....only 9 to go for the all time record...

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=ae1313

The reason I asked about Chinooks refuelling the f35b is because of hearing Singapore would be doing such, equipping its new Chinooks with "fatcow" tanks That will be a ground basd FARP. A significant number of the UK's Chinook fleet also have the larger sponson fuel tanks. But it wouldn'...

Painting an angled landing strip sounds an awful lot cheaper than fitting a mini-EMALS. I think I read somewhere they were looking at folding wings for Predator-B. I wonder if the same could be done for Mojave. Once you start supporting UAVs onboard, interior space is going to be at a premium. Even...

dmereifield wrote: ↑08 Aug 2022, 20:55 Great, but I was more checking about how difficult it will be landing with the deck moving about

With the modern precision approach systems it won't be hard at all. Auto landings are safer than manned.

Little J wrote: ↑08 Aug 2022, 15:43 I know they can receive, I meant to give...

Not sure if there have ever been any real attempts at helo to helo AAR. But the drogues seem to remain stable when a CH-53 approaches one. I expect the interactions between 2 helos would be something no-one would be too keen to test though...

dmereifield wrote: ↑08 Aug 2022, 15:36 But landing in a rolling deck?

With wind over the deck and steaming at a decent rate its going to come in like a Swordfish...pretty much hovering.

Would the hose even be stable at whatever low speed the Chinook could maintain??? Yes, after all MH-47 can refuel from KC-130. But F-35 refuelling from MC-130 are going as slow as they can, with the KC-130 going as fast as it can. With a CH-47 refuelling from an KC-130 the situation would be exactl...

Very interesting footage from General Atomics... Mojave will land and take off from QE with ease...obviously this is not loaded with munitions and we don't know the fuel state, but add wind over the deck and a 25 knot speed from the carrier and it will have no problem whatsoever when its heavily loa...

Would it be feasible for some CH-47s to be equipped as an aerial refuelling service to extend the range of the f35bs ? No. The speed that the F-35 would have to drop to to maintain station behind a CH-47 loaded with fuel and a refuelling kit would require the F-35 to be running with its engine and ...

Well this is a little unexpected....

With NH-90's well known issues the market has certainly opened up, but I'd assumed MH-60 would clear up in that regard and in the Far East.
Genuinely no idea who these are coming from...

Looks like Boxer will get RS4 Protector and Javelin. https://www.kongsberg.com/kda/what-we-do/defence-and-security/remote-weapon-systems/protector-rs4/ Real pity we're not buying the RS6 variant though... https://www.kongsberg.com/kda/what-we-do/defence-and-security/remote-weapon-systems/protector-r...

Day 48.....previous record was 26 days (well 3 minutes under).

They've got to be going for the absolute record now...64 days.

SKB wrote: ↑02 Aug 2022, 12:19 47 (+1 crashed ZM152/BK-18) then

At present even the use of 'contracted' is debateable. We've actually only contracted 35 F-35B (including the crashed aircraft). The final order for 13 of the initial 48 has not been made.

Some good news...at least you'd think it is....but I'm not so sure... The report says.... "48 F-35B Lightning aircraft are on contract. We have made provision to buy additional aircraft, and our planning assumption is that we will purchase additional F-35B Lightning aircraft, but this remains s...

The LWCLU also enables Javelin to reach out to 4,000m rather than 2,500m with the original CLU. Hopefully we'll retain the older CLU in formations as well as its still an additional CLU and can be used as a surveillance tool. https://twitter.com/Gabriel64869839/status/1554223652446826497 From Wiki.....

Suspect this is a story based just on some offhand comments from the US defence attache..

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/h ... r-programs

For anyone who still thinks JSM is arriving in the next couple of years on F-35..., not that long ago some were predicting it would be operational in 2022/23. They're just starting to do some fit tests...there will be reviews following this, then environmental tests, followed by reviews, then carria...

Tempest414 wrote: ↑28 Jul 2022, 15:45 Would these VLS not go to the Constellation class as the US are building some 20 of them also there are some 20+ AB's to be built so some 40 ships

I guess a lot depends on when ships are built and withdrawn from service in terms of timing. 2,816 VL cells though...should be some spare...