Sea control ships were all the craze (before the 'transformation' of land power set in) "On 9 September 1980 Defence Minister Killen advised the Australian Parliament that the Government had decided to go ahead with a replacement for HMAS Melbourne, at first to operate only helicopters with a d...

still thinking it was a couple of pods attached to the sides of the Merlin that could easily be swapped out That was the competing solution ASW consoles removed before the ASaC equipment is added. I thought there was an initiative for the consoles to be able to do both "duties" so less sw...

blame everyone but himself It is easy to blame others when the situation is, as The Times of Israel quoted from their own campaign trail: "Benny Gantz to ToI: Future of Israel as a democracy at stake in these elections If Netanyahu wins, warns Blue and White leader, ‘you are going to get the I...

Reuters reported that after too much coffee, the marathon Cabinet session ended with some Chilean wine
- not a coincidence as out of the countries that trade deals have been agreed with, only Chile and Israel export any

Nick Boles is "back" today and calls a spade a spade: "Mr Boles, the MP for Grantham and Stamford, told the BBC his former party was gripped by a combination of "cowardice and dogma"." And according to the BBC he also "said the PM had "misunderstood and misman...

As the Cabinet is deliberating, the Head of Civil Service, Mark Sedwill " sent a letter to Cabinet ministers setting out [just in case they've been too busy politic'king and have not read the impact assessments] starkly the dangers of no-deal, including risk of recession, security threats, a 10...

"Peace moment" in the count-down was 10 hrs ago:
11d 11 hrs and 11 minutes
... let's see now (in the next hour)

I don't expect that to change either, leadership want to maintain the UK's clout on the international stage, and they won't achieve that being absent in the Indo-Pacific region. Neither do I . Compare to the US (which we are not; neither is the RM to be doing everything that the uSMC is tasked with...

"Government said it would bring forward indicative voting"...The father of the house [has] reminded Ms Leadsom that there was a promise to the house to allow some indicative voting if the motion put forward by Sir Oliver Letwin didn't get through. But the government has stuck to the line t...

In droves...
SNP & Labour for CM 2.0
... if the Speaker won't pull the rug

Let's see if the armaments prgrm will start to run out of steam. Just as Turkey recovered from the previous crisis, their leader manufactured a new one:
https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/m ... serves.png

I guess with CAMM that's true as they are so self-contained
... we do have a Mk41 cult following here; any objections?

Ron5 wrote:would guess the ship cost to be identical

Will the deeper silos make a (cost) difference?

Caribbean wrote:providing extra hangar/ refuelling and even maintenance facilities for the Albion/ Bays.

not to be sniffed at, as value provided outside its/ their core mission

It is time to see if our "dear leaders" can exhibit any statesman/ -woman ship, and as Mark Stone writes of the coming week "Many Brexiteers, who held their noses and voted for the long document at this last vote, would probably not do so again (they hate both a customs union and a se...

brought back in a package that has the Political Declaration with an amendment to "edit" it towards the option most favoured by the Parliament. ... and we know what that is; Skynews relays "Gauke says he would rather leave the customs union as it would "better reflect" the ...

Discussion on Malesia thread (naval show) was branching this way, so a copy inserted here, the quote part if from USNI News: probably based on the earlier USN experiment there with a full-scale amhib Lord Jim wrote: a mobile base off the coast of West Africa - by 2015, the concept had been refined f...

dmereifield wrote:the polls released yesterday showing a 12 point swing in Labours favour - resulting in a 5 point lead for Labour.

She is a liability, and an official measurement is only a month away - that one will take a long time to unwind, whereas these other types of polls come and go

Sloops, corvettes and now armed Tugs ... a race to the bottom (if that is appropriate to say when talking about ships) That novel mentioned is probably based on the earlier USN experiment there with a full-scale amhib a mobile base off the coast of West Africa - by 2015, the concept had been refined...

dmereifield wrote: perhaps ignore the instruction (...), or perhaps call an election, resign or ask for a further extension

Or, in the true Mrs. May fashion, do all of those; avoids the need to decide/ negotiate/ be flexible... none of which she can do

Frenchie wrote: if it is Macron and Salvini it is not possible.

They even stopped digging that tunnel under the Alps (10 yrs in the works, already), for which the EU pays a half and the two countries only the other half, between them

is there use in anything but high intensity warfare. Politicians do not like negative press Just to set your mind in peace ;) on this issue, I think there is only one scenario that those Finns are preparing for, and to give you an idea (about high intensity or otherwise), the joke goes that after 3...

Crunch... and more crunch (about uses of delay): "A letter [that urged against a long extension of the Brexit process, and] signed by 170 of the 314 Conservative lawmakers in parliament, including 10 cabinet ministers, was sent to May after her Brexit deal was rejected for a third time by the H...

A confessed Brexiteer writes "shows how infantilized our political class has become as a result of having allowed Parliament’s sovereignty to ebb away". And funnily enough I agree, but on totally different grounds: - failure to control the Executive (of Henry the VIII leaning) - Parliament...

Whatever they - people attending Cabinet meetings - say to the contrary, between Monday 1st (or Wednesday, 3 April if it goes into another - err, third, round of so-called "indicative votes") and the Wednesday a week later when the Emergency summit of EU leaders will take place, to conside...