- Does NATO have any Mig29's or Su25's from the ex-Soviet countries we can "ship" over to Ukraine ? TheWarZone is reporting that Ukraine has been resupplied with air-to-air weapons which have probably come from Poland. 3 Ukrainian Il-76s have sorted to Poland recently and they've got Su-2...

Glad to see Germany stepping up to the plate

Bloody Europe. It's been 8 years since they invaded Ukraine the first time and they've elected to remain over the barrel.

The transition to alternative energy can't come quick enough for me.

Lot of stuff to pick through there, but something that jumped out to me is an official confirmation that the requirement is for two Type 45's to support annual CSG operations (page 9/10). I personally expected it to wind down to 1 for more routine and lower profile deployments. Nice bit of confirmat...

You might well be correct but the Chinese spying and hacking of US computers has been very successful, don't think its been denied they hacked most of the data on F-35 and remember in 2018 when hacked a major contractor to the USN Naval Underwater Center, so what PLAN tech know and copied open ques...

As you say okay if flying below ships radar horizon, but China now has the land based four engine KJ-500 AEW&C flying and deveoping the two engine copy of the Hawkeye the KJ-600, first flight Jan last year, for their new Type 003 CATOBAR carrier. Yeah, they're definitely moving forward in that ...

If firing JSM from F-35B at 300nm think very low chance of Pk Not if guidance is being provided by a 3rd party if firing from say 100 nm the stealth capability of the F-35B will be seriously compromised by its externally wing mounted JSMs making it a target for Chinese/Russian equivalents of the US...

dmereifield wrote: ↑22 Feb 2022, 08:40 Surely we don't have the funds to waste a £billion designing a class of only 3-4 hulls?

Fleet numbers for main surface combatants is trending downwards and has been for some time. Type 31/32 will enable cuts as they bolster the top line figure

The overall mood music isn't great

That might be true if the only support a fighter gets is a bearing and left to do the job on their own, but it isn't. They'll be briefed before flight with the best intelligence available, then they'll have even more data live from AEW&C aircraft and MPA telling them where to look. They don't ha...

My only worry is will some beancounter think that the RN can make do with 3 or 4*T83's instead of the 6*T45's. I'm probably too much of a pessimist but i'm convinced that's what will happen. It'll be considered a CSG protection asset and with 3 you'll be able to guarantee 1 to escort the CSG with m...

Geoerge seems to think so..but I'm not sure. It's still only assessment of concepts, not agreement to proceed with both, so I think its a little premature to say there will be 2 missiles. Personally I think we need both... My overall feeling is that trying to design a missile that can satisfactoril...

RAF P-8s have been hunting SSKs as part of EXERCISE ARCTIC DOLPHIN. NATO reports say that 4 submarines were involved and a foreign navy version of Perisher was exercised. I would guess it was the Norwegians as the host nation but it isn't actually specified in the articles. https://www.raf.mod.uk/ne...

Ducking out of this thread, politics is always best avoided. Let the Brexit wins keep on coming plz.

I am still amazed how big the T-26 is. Has anyone got an illustration putting a T-26 next to a T-23 to compare them? It's a ~2016 image but it does a fairly good job I think :thumbup: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZMogUk1VFQs/V-QnKI31oGI/AAAAAAAAHyw/p2FPwA1RVS4IHEhjbPEBXXnlUwkKyBAIgCLcB/s1600/Type-26-...

Poland gets State Department approval to buy 250 M1A2SEPv3 Abrams from the US, added onto this are 25 recovery vehicles, 17 bridging systems and a bunch of ammo https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44364/poland-cleared-to-buy-250-m1a2-sepv3-advanced-abrams-tanks Can't work out if this are an expans...

And that’s is why the nation is where it is, sour grapes Don’t understand this why do you want the nation to suffer, the electorate made the decision you should be supporting the nation to get the best deal and get ahead as that is what the nation decided It's not sour grapes, more just desserts. T...

Possibly depends if backroom deals are agreed to suit putins needs also how it makes him look inside Russia as the strongman on the world stage. Sort of defeats the point of backroom deals if they're going to use them to boost Putin's standing publicly. I doubt they're going to walk away with a NAT...

Trouble is if they don't invade Ukraine, what have they accomplished? If they back down now, all they've achieved is further isolation from Europe and a reinvigorated NATO.

Sounds like FC/ASW is about to become FC & ASW.

If the requirements are that reconcilable then it's the only way to move forward. The UK take the lead on the cruise weapon and the French take the lead on the anti-ship weapon

Because their Typhoon work comes through Airbus who are on team FCAS/SCAF

Not sure I'm asking in right thread but how have them sales cost the French ,must be about 120ish sales just lately maybe more The theory is that lots of these sales have been supported by French finance with very generous loan repayment options. In effect, the French state will be paying for them,...

Isn't RN doctrine that the primary ship killer is the SSN, followed by carrier strike and then, a distant third, escort fired missiles? It is (or was) back in the day, but the RN today is a different beast. My issue with SSNs is we just don't have enough of them, we can't guarantee they can provide...

Realistically if the ISD estimate of 2026-2027 is accurate then I can see why they canned it. Why spend £200mn on something you only plan to get 3-4 years use from.

Of course, that relies on FC/ASW sticking to the timeline.

Spits on the dumb idea that Leonardo bought that share of Hensoldt because the UK program was a dead-end. It was always a weird view considering that Airbus' Typhoon ECR proposal had Radar 2 instead of Radar 1. A tacit admission that Radar 2 was seen as far superior. Indeed. Tempest is fortunate in...

First PAF J-10Cs have rolled out in China - C variant confirmed from the photos as the powerplant is identified as WS-10B rather than AL-31F https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44302/chinas-first-export-j-10-multi-role-fighters-for-pakistan-emerge As is tradition, the export designation is unknown...