After the debates last night there was This Week. I nearly fell off the chair when Michael Portillo, an ex Conservative Minister of Defence, said that in his view that as funds were very tight Trident System should not be renewed and the saved money spent on upgrading our conventional forces. I thi...

In relation to the following link. Does anyone have any info on the progress (or lack of) on the so called 'frigate factory', has any work started yet on the complex, or indeed have they yet been given planning permission to build at Scotstoun ? BAE seem to be very quiet on the subject. http://www.s...

I can forsee a situation where we eventually do get a one for one replacement, but where two or more Dukes are retired early whilst maintaining the steady (artificially slow) drumbeat of Type 26 construction for "cost saving reasons" and thus causing a serious reduction in hull numbers fo...

marktigger wrote:the current and future opv fleet including the Falkland Islands Patrol Vessel

As a Falkland islands OPV it is completely restricted by lack of a hangar

As an OPV for the UK an excellent choice. As an OPV for export completely let down by a lack of a hangar (forget Brazil) . Unfortunately when you see the offerings of foreign competitors, particularly France, then these vessels have little chance of gaining further export orders.

Being a glass half full sort of person, or perhaps overley optimistic, I think we will get the one for one replacements over time. If not the full 13 then I would go for a slightly upgraded 'Black Swan Project' type as opposed to a modified 'River'. A project still (hopefully) on the MOD's whiteboar...

Another promise that will be very hard to keep.

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/home/video-we- ... -1.1209043

Edit by The Armchair Soldier: Please Read Before Posting: To prevent important news items from being bogged down by general discussion, we have decided to split this topic. This topic will now be used for news only . You are encouraged to post news in this thread - as well as discuss it - but pleas...

Seems a bit strange to me that this guy has suddenly got 'tired' of drawing these cartoons. France has been forced to increase it's defence budget partly in response to Charlie Hebdo, something it can ill afford at this time. I would imagine that some discreet 'pressure' has been brought to bear on ...

Nice to see the forum up and running so quickly, and is already gaining lots of interest by the looks of things. Congratulations and here's to a bright future.