The Vikings might be very useful in crossing from the Kherson city area to the bridgehead (minus any bridges still standing....) on the other side of the river. Right now Ukraine is somewhat constrained by an inability to 'safely' ferry significant numbers of troops across and then those troops lack...

The Royal Navy is going to be a Navy with 2 fleets, the 'carrier group' fleet, and the 'everything else' fleet. The T31 fills out the 'everything else' fleet, and more importantly it's cheap, making it the only realistic option for an extra batch. This reality is exactly why I think consideration s...

As much as Maduro obviously is an idiot hell-bent of diverting domestic attention away from his disastrous economic policies and dictatorial rule, I do not think he is so much an idiot that he does not appreciate that proceeding with an invasion of Guyana carries a not-insignificant risk of his own ...

Nicely done USN. The Houthis really have it in for the USS Mason - they also fired missiles at her back in 2016 which resulted in some limited cruise missile strikes against Houthi radar sites.

shark bait wrote: ↑24 Nov 2023, 08:50 At 100m it's a wired hybrid between an OPV and LPH. Does this make the Portuguese the first to commit to a drone carrier? Will be an interesting one to watch.

Iran has built a drone carrier and it is currently undergoing sea trials:

aussiland has 72 F-35, with a possibility for up to another 28 if they want super hornet replacements. There has been doubts recently. Australia currently operates 24 super hornets + 12 growlers. It is a bit like saying how the UK programme for F-35 is 138, when we are more on our way to 72. Thanks...

Seems to me that far and away the most obvious country to talk to about joining GCAP would be our AUKUS ally Australia. They are buying circa 100 F-35A but might still be very interested in a further 80 or so of something with significantly greater range as their Super Hornets approach retirement.

I think getting some Rapier or Sky Sabre batteries to Akrotiri and potentially beefing up the fast jet deployment would be sensible. If rockets / drones / ballistic missiles etc start flying all over the region such that the US decide to directly get involved, the odds are Akrotiri will have some ki...

Apparently timed to strike a meeting of senior Russian officers - rumours abound (some coming directly from the chief of Ukrainian military intelligence) of deaths and serious injuries at the very top of the command chain. No confirmation yet but, if it is true, then I cannot get the folly of holdin...

It would be interesting to know whether these can be landed and re-used if there is no appropriate target to engage or whether, once they have taken off, there is no way to recover them.

SD67 wrote: ↑13 Sep 2023, 05:33
What seems to be missing is an Ikara replaent ie "torpedo range extender"

A timely post from Navy Lookout:

Long and detailed analysis of the current state of Ukraine's offensive:

https://warontherocks.com/2023/09/perse ... ee-months/

Of relevance to this debate is that many other countries in Europe (most notably Poland) have reacted to recent events by significantly hiking defence spending. We have not done so to anything like the same agree and for the most part our increases are a (failing) attempt to tread water rather than ...

It carries no scouting specific avionics, no pylon mounted weapons, It's quite frankly about as useful to the Army as Chocolate teapot.... It is somewhat puzzling that the AAC does not seem to see any benefit in acquiring the RN's pylons and Martlet. Obviously, money is tight but it would presumabl...

However, it may not be a coincidence that this was posted - Cleverly done some might say.... https://twitter.com/JamesCleverly/status/1694317186779693169 What has tickled me is that the S400 not only could not track or engage whatever weapon destroyed much of the system, but also could not track or ...

Oh dear - what a shame!



"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them.“ — Arthur Travers Harris

The following Twitter accounts are all excellent sources of information: https://twitter.com/Rebel44CZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://twitter.com/NOELreports?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://twitter.com/markito0171?lang=en https://twitter...

If we are talking about something capable of giving fire support to troops ashore, then the 127mm and, I would suggest, something like GMLRS would be appropriate (as the guided nature of the rounds would mitigate for stability issues), with self-defence being based on Phalanx and LMM/ Starstreak as...

I suggested something very similar on here only a few weeks ago but it definitely did not find favour - to me it is something of a no-brainer that it would be useful for a mothership to be able to provide fire support ashore when the RM it has deployed are conducting a raid but the situation calls f...

Then, what hope? Ukraine T31? I can't see T31 being a sensible acquisition for Ukraine, just do not see it being survivable in Black Sea conflict given the Russian Kilos in those waters and the large nearby aviation presence with many aircraft tasked with maritime interdiction. Hell, Ukraine's nava...

Contrasting styles - today Ukraine has gone after Russia's strategic bomber fleet and, judging from the smoke and a Russian MoD acknowledgement that aircraft were hit, done some pretty serious damage to it: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1692849530130051089 Russia has fired a ballistic missile at ...

Also remember it is not all one way we could use TLAM to take out there airfields to I agree with the general point you were making in your post but with regards this part I'm far from convinced that TLAM, in the quantities we could fire, could render an airbase inoperable for anything more than a ...

A fully formed carrier group needs 9 asw Merlin’s and 4 aew Merlin’s and the RN doesn’t have that. Does it actually *need* 9 ASW Merlins or is that just the way the RN are used to operating due to institutional experience with the Invincibles operating primarily as ASW carriers? No other major navy...

This should put a serious dent in Russian logistics - I'm no engineer but I doubt there is a quick fix: