Five generations of MEKO's following updated/upgraded design iterations with a life cycle of more than 40 years. I will put this one here as I have not seen any specific news about it: the A-200 design, to be truly globally deployable, would need to trade speed for endurance. The size of the hull i...

nothing to sneeze at. Particularly for 31e, which is envisioned to be an export darling and in our use, the 'singleton' to be sent to various ad hoc naval task forces - here's how the EU Op Atalanta has been stitched together for situational awareness https://on-shore.mschoa.org/mschoa-and-maritime...

These sorts of things "PM's war on 'death cult' Tories" make it into headlines, but I would be more interested to hear if "they" -whoever it is now doing the hardwork; Starmer & Lidington? - have decided to call a CU "a comprehensive customs arrangement" ... to be f...

Aethulwulf wrote:That means leaving the choice of the combat management system (and associated costs) down to the bidders.

It also means that weapons integration does not cost extra and any risk in it is carried by the bidder.

Lord Jim wrote: with the remainder in storage as part of the fleet sustainment programme

This is not a national prgrm where a minimum batch size will have to be reached, but rather you can order (the ever cheaper planes) in small batches off the line, as required

dmereifield wrote:lack if accuracy

We could round the £66 bn to half a hundred (or eleven carriers each of which comes with a spare)
- order of magnitude is the important bit; a point estimate can't really be used for anything

expanding F-35 sales to five new countries including Romania, Greece , and Poland Greece has s-300. - they are on Crete, though - originally they were destined not to Greece, but to the almost Greek 2/3s of Cyprus... would have changed the balance, and a big-power compromise (w/o loss of face, nor ...

FLSS vessels aren't able to provide enough aviation capacity to build a Littoral Strike Group around them mission creep One way or another a QE would have to get involved and that trashes the idea of two independent LSG's either side of Suez. one at a time :thumbup: - the other one is still on loca...

change configuration for more a decade it ain’t going to happen. 2030 (Tr1s) is, but only just, more than a decade away a wasp with probably 9 jets and a dozen helicopters That is a JC1 - Harriers swapped for a plane that belongs to this century they operate 10 jet squadrons add to this that the US...

also a fit to Hercules or voyager or reaper or p8 in pod form All that pod'ded goodness... BUT: a question Do you think we could do some cost avoidance here, with special ref to P-8? - namely the US over-the-ground-too version due to come out of testing 2022 (or -23) - obviously, adding that missio...

Repulse wrote:deliver rotary [and fixed wing] aviation and support assault operations across the beach

Thanks. Now I know who LJ is debating with, denouncing any such

Backwards estimates are no different to forward estimates, they can be just as wrong You obviously prefer verbalism to hard numbers... shall we bet a virtual pint as to which approach is 'stronger' once the fog clears? :D -btw, I had a typo for OBR in the above post (put an S in place for the "...

Adding one word to what BBC's Katya Adler writes " the PM [is]for a rolling series of short extensions, with the threat of a no-deal Brexit always just round the corner" because that is the only leverage she has got left. And while levering (what?) with one hand, she is using a device (the...

The economy won't be 9% smaller - it will be 9% less big than it would (or, to be more accurate, might possibly) have been if we hadn't Brexited. Not sure that I have 100% confidence in the source Sorry, shorthand in Morse style sometimes gets the better of me :oops: - but you don't trust OBS? By t...

Repulse wrote:some normally reliable resources like Warship World had reported it

Ohh? Is this more recent than the BAES design that was 'floated' abt 10 yrs ago?
- a genuine question as I don't read those things
- BTW, for anyone interested, the Navy News can be subscribed for £30/ yr

where Raptor was being discussed but here goes. With a counter weight and wiring, could it be used under wing on a Typhoon? There was a photo of a test a/c (painted orange? and w/o a counterweight, despite being lopsided) but that does not seem to sit on the net anymore (the net never forgets??) - ...

Mr Tusk told officials that the only "reasonable" way out of the Brexit deadlock in parliament is to allow another year for talks. Ohh dear! - these two darlings here don't seem to be holding hands then? - they must have kept the Brux end of the telex line ajour ;) A de facto CU - or a CU ...

And
" Should the Cooper-Letwin bill pass, and Mrs May be offered an extension by the EU, she will have to bring it straight back to the Commons" on Thursday
- a busy bee, isn't she

A well known fact that "Warrior/Ajax can't keep up with Boxer" - but Boxer can keep up with them (95% of the time). Now, the question is: will we be building the support variants A. to be compatible with the future (main) fleet, or B. backwards compatible? It is more than a billion dollar ...

A gentle reminder to those who bother (?) to watch the circus:
- if the economy will be 9% smaller
- will the defence budget be 20 OR 30% lower?

Now, if we have 3 Commands +the Deterrent+ the TA
... which one to delete first? And that is only a 1/5th; not a third

SW1 wrote:India’s operate Russian equipment so f35 unlikely

I don't think you have read the bilateral agreements for sharing know-how/ hard tech
- it is all in place between Pentagon/ USN/ India
- no decisions... such normally flow from a fairly advanced design (=advanced enough to be costed)

xav wrote: just that those two are not really "top tier" navies...

Yep, that was what I meant with 'the club'

When will we become the aspiring member, as opposed to being the 'secretary of the club'... counting points 'for' and 'against'

Quick answer is that Boxer without some with a decent gun turret is going to get its ass handed to it. One in four... I would say Or, let me tone it down: 1:4 with turret ... and then, at the next level up, a whole (3 X 4 of those others= 12), 4 or so with a 'Big' gun. 12 +4 times 3 or 4 fifty to s...

Lord Jim wrote:Capabilities that have been allowed to perish when the attention was on Afghanistan or thought no longer needed as no substantial conventional threat existed, need to be reacquired and having a protected/under armour ATGW capability is one of them.

Agreed... but what on earth is (in yr txt) ATGE?

Repulse wrote:Assuming that the FLSS design comes out as expected then the idea of a 3rd flattop in the current fiscal environment is dead.

Sorry to be blunt, but did it ever have a life? Outside these pages