Having completed a bit of research it's become clear that the AAC still has at least 63 air worthy Apache AH1. Of the original 67 ordered the current situation is: • one was written off in an accident in 2016 • one has been dismantled http://www.demobbed.org.uk/aircraft.php?type=163 and two are in l...

Agree totally about the AAR.

Nevertheless, USN P-8s are armed with two AMRAAM.

The only thing that's admittedly a bit strange is that 12(B) is also the Joint Typhoon Squadron with Qatar https://www.janes.com/article/81984/uk-qatar-stand-up-joint-typhoon-unit . Now you would have thought that as Qatar are buying tranche 3 aircraft they wouldn't want to train on older more basic...

From Jane's in July this year In terms of the aircraft to equip 9 Squadron, ACM Hillier made it clear that the RAF will not be buying new Typhoons. Instead, this unit and 12 (Bomber) Squadron, which will follow it at RAF Coningsby as the RAF’s second new Typhoon unit, will be populated with Typhoons...

Yes, I do appreciate that the P-8 and E-7 airframes are not identical but I am suggesting that even if we buy the E-7 'off the shelf' there should still be one adaptation and that should be to add the six external hardpoints and equip them with AMRAAM D and ASRSAAM. Not sure what change is being ref...

A Parliamentary answer has confirmed that when the Poseidon MRA1 enters service in late 2019 it will come armed with Harpoon missiles and Mk 54 torpedoes https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2018-05-16/144839/ This should mean ...

donald_of_tokyo wrote: It isn't a frigate. I totally agree. Calling a 250m GBP ship a frigate is dishonesty. and at 4,000 tonnes the Leander is a bit small as well as slow. However, the Arrowhead at 5,700 tonnes is more credibly a frigate. Then again at £3.7 billion for three ships and weighing in ...

Block 4 software includes ASRAAM Block 6 (incorporating a new seeker designed for the CAMM family of Surface-to-Air Missiles with the capability to intercept incoming missiles), Meteor BVRAAM (with yet to be confirmed advanced Mitsubishi AESA seeker) and SPEAR 3. This is all meant to be live in 2024...

Surely even the Leander needs to maximise the use of equipment from the T23s if it is to keep to the £250m price tag? That must mean at the very least transitioning the Artisan 3D radar, sonar, 4.5 inch gun, eight Harpoon missile launchers and the full 32 CAMM mushroom farm silo! If there isn't room...

From Lockheed Martin's website https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/pr ... tions.html

"ExLS also comes in a standalone variant that enables a ship to launch missiles or munitions regardless of whether or not it is equipped with a VLS."

To save on costs for the Type 31e it seems to be accepted that as much equipment as possible will need to be passed on from the retiring Type 23 frigates – including Artisan radar, 4.5 inch gun, 48 Sea Ceptor SAM launchers and eight Harpoon anti-shipping missile launchers. So, if there's room, my pr...

One reason for integrating Storm Shadow on to the Poseidon is the inclusion of a two-way datalink after the SPEAR 4 upgrade to allow for retargeting which could allow the missile to target ships up to 560 kilometres away https://militaryleak.com/2018/05/29/sto ... -scalp-eg/

Is a split buy really so daft as long as we don't buy any F-35A until we have enough F-35B to equip both carriers? If we buy six aircraft a year then by 2030 Air Command will have a total of 84 in service. That should be more then enough to equip four frontline Squadrons of twelve aircraft each and ...

Call me a cynic but maybe it's no coincidence that HAAWC, Harpoon II+ER and SLAM-ER are the weapons range on offer with the Poseidon and they're all Boeing products. Certainly I would have thought that using pre-existing Sting Ray torpedoes with HAAWC would be cheaper than buying brand new Mk 54's b...

No real surprise that our Poseidons come with Harpoon. Bit disappointing that HAAWC won't be made to work with Sting Ray as we have such large stocks. I think we have to get real about Poseidon numbers. An order for an additional 7 could cost up to £2 billion at today's woeful exchange rate and ther...

If the uncommitted money is real, why is this happening? My opinion about why this hasn't happened is bureaucracy. Firstly, the order for the final 12 AH-64E has to be placed. This has not happened because either the project has been caught in a moratorium while the latest defence review is going o...

Also where are you getting the more detailed cost breakdown from, or is it your estimating? My initial source for costs are the MoD's annual reports on the Defence Equipment Plan and the associated NAO reports. When this doesn't suffice I go to the US' foreign military sales statements, UK parliame...

Latest news on Squadron changes http://www.janes.com/article/81705/raf-announces-new-typhoon-protector-squadrons IX(B) to transition from Tornado to tranche 1 Typhoon and be located at RAF Lossiemouth 12(B) to stand up as tranche 1 Typhoon Squadron and be located at RAF Coningsby 31 to stand down as...

Ships Budget Priorities to 2026 This assessment is based on the MoD’s defence equipment plan 2017 which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-defence-equipment-plan-2017 It examines the ‘Equipment Procurement (Uncommitted)’ figure for Ships at March 31st 2017 and can be f...

Submarines Budget Priorities to 2026 This assessment is based on the MoD’s defence equipment plan 2017 which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-defence-equipment-plan-2017 It examines the ‘Equipment Procurement (Uncommitted)’ figure for Submarines at March 31st 2017 an...

They postponed OSD for Harpoon 1C from 2018 to 2020 - what would be the point if it's not going to be replaced in 2020? Also, the P-8 Poseidon is coming into service and should be able to operate the Harpoon II +ER from about 2020. The obvious solution would be to buy the Harpoon II +ER for both the...

Order for 200 AMRAAM D confirmed https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/riat/2018/07/10/us-approves-amraam-sales-for-uk-and-denmark/ This should cover the gap on the F-35B up to the introduction of the Meteor in 2024. It leaves most of the AMRAAM C5 currently in service for tranche 1 Typho...

Normally I'm quite supportive of the work undertaken by the Defence Committee but on this occasion they've got it wrong. See https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk-committee-urges-against-wedgetail-selection-449948/ A solution based on a business jet almost certainly won't be in the same leag...

Helicopter Budget Priorities to 2026 This assessment is based on the MoD’s defence equipment plan 2017 which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-defence-equipment-plan-2017 It examines the ‘Equipment Procurement (Uncommitted)’ figure for Combat Air at March 31st 2017 an...

An interesting article on a possible alternative to modernising the E-3D Sentry https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/the-e-7-wedgetail-should-this-aircraft-replace-the-sentry/ Australia paid A$3 billion for its six aircraft. At current exchange rates that's slightly under £1.7 billion so would just about...