It appears that Starstreak and LMM are both deployed with Ukrainian Airborne units, who are having significant success with it... The really interesting thing is how long the missile is in flight.....or to put it another way...it's range is massively longer than the 8km often stated...this hit was a...

Very interesting concept from MBDA Deutschland. An anti-uav capability using a version of the Enforcer missile. It won't be very long ranged or very fast so no real chance of it being a SHORAD system. Could engage helos out to 3-4 km potentially but that would be it. Be interesting to see what ceili...

But...I've just noticed, not sure why I missed this, that the missile proposed is essentially a ground launched Remote Carrier 200...which then gives us a real appreciation of its range, which hasn't been stated before, we now can be very sure that it is well over 500km, probably considerably so......

The answer to all of our prayers really.... The Artillery Gun Module...if we could get in soon we could make the UK the main manufacturing centre for it...1 gun system, 3 platforms, Tracked, Boxer wheeled heavy armour, MAN HX wheeled. Boxer Tracked https://i.imgur.com/7EZZj1b.jpg Boxer Wheeled https...

There is no truck mounted double pod platform that I am aware of as given HIMARS is truck mounted, it would take a much larger platform, especially wider to mount a two pod launcher on such a platform. South Korean K-MLRS, K239 Chunmoo.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K239_Chunmoo Or you could tak...

The key wording in the announcement is 'mutually agreed'....

This means that it wasn't going to work as intended....

We should really be happy that they've stopped a programme for once before it has consumed more funds...its good programme/risk management.

I assume that operational squadrons would ideally have 12 active aircraft and 3-4 aircraft as spares to allow for repairs / maintenance etc. If training squadron needs the same then that would be 75-80 aircraft needed for 4 operational squadrons plus 1 training squadron. So not too far away. It wou...

So we'll have 47 plus 26 in total, minus the 3 experimental airframes equals 70. Enough for 3 frontline squardons, but probably not 4... Anyone know what the breakdown will be? 1st squadron is joint RAF/FAA, the 2nd is RAF (I believe?), will the 3rd be FAA? Would be nice to have at least 1 squadron...

RichardIC wrote: ↑24 Jun 2022, 12:38 Fitting forward firing gun pods and unguided rockets on Merlin would be monumental act of stupidity. That’s the way the Americans lost many hundreds of helicopters over Vietnam 50 years ago. And they could afford to.

And yet they still do...

And laser guided rockets with 8km range are a thing.

If that is the 2nd lot of the initial 48 and we have 22 right now (google) that is not a lot of new aircraft to come between now and when these start arriving in 2026 27 delivered so far (with 1 lost). 23 are at Marham with 3 at Edwards AFB in the test force. The 21 left to get to the '48' should b...

Rocket pods, not such a fan, more logistics and stocks to deal with just fit Martlet and/or Sea Venom I can't see any reason why you couldn't apart from the integration/clearance costs. Integration and clearance is precisely the reason, Sea Venom in particular would be an expensive integration effo...

I know we often say that Frigates equipped with Merlin suffer from having no access to Sea Venom or Martlet as they are not integrated, and that even with an OSD of 2040 there is little to no chance of Merlin ever being equipped with either weapon system. But...there is another option. I didn't real...

Project Halcon, the supply of 20 new Typhoon to Spain to replace the oldest EF-18 is signed.

Any opinion on this configuration of the Eurofighter is welcome ???? It's an odd one. It's a single seater for a start. Airbus were wanting to do the ECR as a 2-seater in previous images. It also has the EW pods and tanks in the wrong position. The ECR proposal switched them around to give the EW p...

Jdam wrote: ↑21 Jun 2022, 22:56 I am starting to doubt those 2026 integration dates.

It had already slipped to 2027 for F-35.
Spear does seem to have slipped behind Stormbreaker somewhat. Obviously its more complex but they were started at the same time.

Just a quick update. Although the next 8 aircraft have been assigned serial numbers in sequence there's been no sign of any new build RAF aircraft on test flights yet. The next 3 look like they will be delivered at the back end of this year. Possibly in November like previous deliveries were. I'd ex...

I'm not going to update the list....but a Turkish delegation has been in the UK talking to us about Typhoon.... It sounds like a courtesy visit with a side aim of pressurising the US from dragging their feet on F-16V sales and an upgrade package for other aircraft, or it could possibly represent a g...

Possibly the money from the film industry for renting the sheds is what’s covering them to make the airships? Hangar 2 is owned by Cardington Studios, Hangar 1 is owned by Gallagher Developments. No idea what they'll be using it for, they'll never be allowed to pull it down for housing. https://www...

Air Nostrum are a 'real' company as well. Part of Iberia, fleet size of over 40 aircraft and revenue of c500m EUR a year.

Shame they are moving from Bedford - it has such a long association with airships in the UK, both old and new. I have memories of clambering all over an, if IIRC, Airship Industries prototype in the Cardington Airsheds, sometime in the early 70s, when the weather was too bad to fly on our gliding c...

Well this is genuinely a pleasant surprise, I honestly thought it would be another 'airship' venture that quietly announced bankruptcy a few years down the road after the market didn't buy any... Do wonder where in South Yorkshire they'll be, they've got a link up with Sheffield University. https://...

Anyone know if anything is missing from this list? Aircraft that have landed on QE Class... F-35B Merlin HM.2 Wildcat HMA.2 Merlin HC.4 Wildcat AH.1 Chinook HC.4 Puma HC.2 (whilst she was docked) S.92 - Bristow chartered HMCG MV-22B UH-1Y SH-53E MH-53E MH-60R/S Dauphin 2 - FOST Apache AH.1 UH-60P (S...

In isolation, I'd suggest they would. However when combined with the future MBT, the new French carrier and SSNB replacement that's a lot of commitment over the next two decades. It's worth remembering that there were some calculations/reports produced that showed that the Eurofighter Typhoon could...

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. To an extent that actually happened in Eurofighter. The German's had to compensate the UK in particular d...