Has an AEW aircraft ever been shot down? (before today) Yes - North Korea downed a USN AEW aircraft in the late 60s. I can't think of any other instance though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_EC-121_shootdown_incident That particular EC-121 was ELINT rather than AEW, so the A-50 was the first.

I noticed a while back that the in-service Sky Sabre launcher vehicles do not have the optronic masts featured on the demonstrators and they don't appear to be set up to be easily retrofitted. That would presumably eliminate the ability of the launchers to act as SAM systems in their own right and m...

Sorry Sol, maybe I did not put enough emphasis on "was" - I meant during the timeframe up to when the Warrior life-extension/improvement project was eventually decided upon. A current IFV version does indeed not exist, but it was developed from IFVs which were/are in service with Spain an...

Given that a major likely, local adversary has submarines and that armed underwater drones are becoming a thing, should T31 not now have a sonar (other than the one associated with its torpedo defence system)?

Given that the parent vehicle is an IFV (OK, arguably TWO IFVs), was thought given to replacing Warrior with Ajax in the IFV role? Considering there is no active or announced program for new IFV, I doubt there is much serious thoughts given to any vehicle that could fill that role. And while Ajax w...

Given that the parent vehicle is an IFV (OK, arguably TWO IFVs), was thought given to replacing Warrior with Ajax in the IFV role?

You worded it the same as on their Facebook, so any confusion isn't your fault. Thank you for the clarification.

1RHA on Facebook stating that E Battery has retrained onto L118 and that AJAX conversion begins later in the year. Interesting times! When they say conversion to AJAX, are they giving up the towed 105mm or operating the AJAX alongside it? Any idea how that works, doctrinally? It seems like an odd c...

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...

Sweden will replace donated CV90s to Ukraine with CV9035 Mk IIIC https://twitter.com/CorporalFrisk/status/1712084479219552628 This initially appeared a very odd choice given that the 35mm is not made in Sweden, either as a gun or ammunition, whereas the 40mm originated there and is in the supply ch...

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...

Before anyone jumps all over me - yes, Abrams X is just a company concept demonstrator. I wasn't claiming it had been adopted or was likely to be.

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...

Hi RunningStrong It goes without saying that you have to detect something to engage it. If you watch the Russians vs these things it's surprising how close they get to them before detection, even when flying at a virtual standstill. Sometimes they are not detected at all. They can also appear from b...

I get how it works :D I'm not entirely sure you do. It's not difficult for a person to follow a moving target through sights, but becomes challenging for the user to perform the necessary ballistic compensation for range and movement. The system does this for the user. The system is also only a fir...

From recent events, I think we really need to see a revised Hard-Kill APS that can handle bomb dropping UAVs and FPVs attacking from above. I think Abrams X was displayed with a fully hemispherical APS. Merkavas are now sprouting cope cages/canopies, presumably as an interim solution.

Probably old news to everyone here, but an FOI request I recently put in revealed that both BONUS and the SGR77 HE shell entered British Army service with Archer. Another request revealed that MLRS AT-2 and all other AT mines (including off-route) had been retired and that RAAMS was not used by the ...

I thought Counter Mobility deserved a thread of its own. This is the response to an FOI request I received recently: Dear Chris Werb Thank you for your email of 24 November requesting the following information: “I would like the following information. 1. Is the L9 series Bar mine still in British mi...

Is there anything in writing out there on increasing our number of Sky Sabre systems? On 28th June 2023, Defence Procurement Minister, James Cartlidge delivered a speech at the Full Spectrum Air Defence Conference in London. "Sky Sabre is forecast to reach full operational capability later in t...

This is probably old news to the rest of you, but it's the first I had heard of it.

https://euro-sd.com/2022/11/articles/26 ... n-britain/

Pte. James Frazer wrote: ↑14 Nov 2023, 18:31 30×113mm not in inventory,

The M230 on the AH-64E Apache Guardian shoots it, but hopefully you won't be shooting at drones with HEDP

I'm afraid not. Turns out it 'might' not be the system supplied. There was a muzzle brake missing on the pic, which means it might be a Yugo built one. Still the possibility that it might be AEI was something we'd all forgotten about.. It is ex-Yugoslav Zastava M75. Probably supplied by/originate f...

In all honesty, what are the chances of hitting a fast moving FPV with a rifle, assuming you even know it is coming at you, regardless of what sighting system you have on your rifle? The system controls a trigger solenoid, so the operator just moves the sites into the coincidence zone shown on the ...

The Army has procured this for the moment: https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/06/game-changing-anti-drone-weapon-sight-for-army-s-close-combat-soldiers/#:~:text=The%20capability%20can%20recognise%20a,other%20in%2Dservice%20individual%20weapons. In all honesty, what are the chances of...

How many Skysabre batteries did the army order again, was it 24? Sorry to disappoint you, but the number appears to be four batteries each of two troops, each with one system of one radar and three launchers. The batteries rotate so that one is always stationed in the Falklands. I suspect that two ...