whitelancer wrote:For all the criticism of Challenger never seen one looking like this!

Chr*st ! Do we know what caused this - ATGW ?? Surely not IS ( Daesh, ISIS whatever) Syrian army T80 ??

Could be a very strong 'tide' - lol

USAF employs SDB, which is a gliding stand off weapon. SDB 2, equivalent in many way to SPEAR 3 but meant to glide instead of using an engine, is to follow, also on F-35B due to it being tri-seeker and able to hit even high speed moving targets, so excellent for stand off CAS. So the stand-off bit ...

Yeah I get that and agree Ive always wondered why despite the goochy Lockheed Martin videos showing F35 doing SEAD etc they haven't actually developed any precision guided stand off system simultaneous with the build that will enable precision engagement at any reach. Sure the F35 is stealthy - its ...

Bottom line: a long way to get any truly guided, rather than estimated, weapons for A2G on the F-35. - no wonder there is an initiative to look at a "nxt-gen" Bronco in the USAF for CAS uses - benign environment only... A-10 will live on? Isnt Paveway IV (the UK version) truly guided? I t...

Recommended viewing, some great footage in here about test work in 2016, including Paveway IV. https://youtu.be/PfGuwS2tGPg Great video, nice to see the F35 finally getting slung about with loads of stuff underneath even if it makes it stealthy - not! Also the Brits and UK weapons getting a big men...

in place of the two 20mm GAM-BO1's which are shown in the second video above Were those the last of them then? Don't think so, I think Albion and Bulwark still have them atop the bridge and certainly the Batch 1 Rivers too. Ocean has swopped hers for 30mm but I think at least one of the Bays and Fo...

Yeah - but with Harpoon going it will need an SSM....

It also looks like shes got 2 x 30mm fitted in place of the two 20mm GAM-BO1's which are shown in the second video above, most certainly Mk 44 mini gun too, so the standard RFA self defence fit ?

Anyone know why we have yet to see AAM carried on any of the other external pylons? To my knowledge and to date only ASRAAM/AIM 9X have been carried externally on the two outer pylons with AMRAAM internally in the bays. All the power-point briefs however show the four other external pylons as being ...

Not all ground targets will be 1000 km inland or need 500 kg warhead. Nor ships. Tomahawk now has a version that can be used against moving ships and has a mid-course guidance correction in it, quite important over such distances - now, you would not want to use it against a boghammer, but keeping ...

Thanks for the info guys. So is it still possible to sustain 8 deployable aircraft if they reduce the squadron size from 12 to 10? I suppose the answer depends on whether they maintain the same number of support crew for the smaller squadron or whether they will need to be extracted from the 7 squa...

Jdam wrote:ASRAAM will be part of the block 3F software.

They shipped the first batch of ASRAAM's last February for testing, haven't heard of any test firings though.

Am I right though in thinking that ASRAAM can only be carried externally - does that not negate the whole advantage of stealth ?

Just watched 'Impossible Engineering' Series 1 Episode 2 'Aircraft Carrier' about QE build etc. Very impressed to be honest, totally upbeat and very 'un-BBC', no cr*p about Carriers without planes etc that you usually get. it is a lot more than an engineering documentary, also goes into quite a lot ...

Pentagon re-assessing future fleet's F-35C, Super Hornet mix Daniel Wasserbly, Washington, DC - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, 02 February 2017 The US Department of Defense (DoD) has begun reviewing plans for buying the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), and this includes re-a...

Not forgetting that T45 also has Phalanx Block 1B which is specifically designed to handle this kind of attack and the main reason it will be retained on the T26. Interestingly the RN have also started fitting .50 Cal MG's to vessels deployed to the Gulf, at least to the MCMV's, not sure if Frigates...

[quote="ArmChairCivvy"]Annual Defence Acquisition Board review: - 3F to complete in May 2018 - any impact on US quantities (for any of the versions) be made known in the FY request of the same year - what is there that the UK would want/ has agreed to receive past the 3F? If we were intere...

I rather suspect the USMC are going to help with the provisioning or should I say prepositioning of USMC F35s on the CVFs. I cannot see them not assessing the threats and adding their own layer of credible defences. I personally don't think the MOD is currently providing enough tools and manpower t...

Further denial of the 'mothball story; The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has insisted it is "fully committed to operating" both new Royal Navy aircraft carriers following speculation over their future. The statement comes after a shipbuilding union called for "urgent clarification" o...

Given the size of the flight decks (and the ships), did we not miss a trick putting a bigger hanger on the Tides, 3 x Merlin perhaps, steel being cheap and air being free ?

The Armchair Soldier wrote:Good find. Thanks for sharing.

Have to say that despite the delays (marginal ?) that is one impressive looking ship and a big flight deck too. Does anyone know if the hangar can only accommodate the one Merlin or possibly more ?

Italy also does have immediate reasons to get the A in service timely, too, with the biggest reason being the B61-12 nuclear attack mission. The F-35A will replace the Tornado IDS in that mission. Smaller but relevant reasons: we already use the weapons that require the larger bay (GBU-32, GBU-39)....

Were still going to need Typhoon in any case, not least because I saw it reported somewhere that the MOD had announced early this year that we had dropped any aspiration to integrate Storm Shadow on F35. It will be integrated on Typhoon before Tornado retires and the standoff reach it will give shou...

The news Gabs got from 1 Yorks is what makes me most despondent of all - losing their Warriors. Have tried to tie down some detail but there is little in the announcement that makes mention of kit. Had hoped like most that we wouldn't lose any Armoured Infantry (AI) Bns and that the 2 Warrior (WR) B...

Will our F35B's be able to do that, with Sea Viper, PAAMS and Type 45 ? Presumably we will have MADL but will it be able to talk to our ships?