Where would it deploy to?

The Straits of Malacca would seem to be well covered by the Singapore and Malaysian Navies, likewise the Baltic you have Germany and Sweden. The Black Sea is likely too far for small SSKs. Hormuz maybe? I'd have thought drones would be better suited there.

:clap: :clap: :clap: They need German money, but if they feel that they can survive alone with their exports, like it is happening, Germany will be knocking at Tempest door. And we should politely, but firmly keep the door locked shut. Germany has been the bane of the Eurofighter project from day 1...

I agree that’s the challenge - preventing the age old British problem of the “Promising Development Project”, ie the boffins are having orgasms while work in the factory dries up. Ideally there’d be a nice little Saudi follow on order for Typhoon about now, plus Quadrigia plus Spain. Maybe there nee...

Hilarious. As of now FCAS does not exist. Spend to date is like 100 million - ie a fibreglassmockup and a powerpoint. I think we’ll get a “Stealth Rafale”, in about 2040 designed by Dassault, they may give Germany some subcontracting work to make them feel good but let’s not kid ourselves it’ll be a...

I must admit, I always believed that the idea of FC/ASW was that it would be one missile that was able to engage both land and sea targets, not two different versions of the same missile. Having separate missiles will increase both cost of purchase and logistics to maintain, I think in practice the...

If I were the French I'd go it alone. What exactly does Germany bring to the table except red tape? There must be intense political pressure to make it "European" but at the end of the day Dassault is a private company and the Germans may be overplaying their hand.

Sure let’s email the source codes to Putin

IMHO that’s the “natural” state of the fleet. Last T class was commissioned 1991, HMS Astute 2010. We missed at least 5 SSN worth of construction, while skilled tradesmen were driving taxis around Barrow or (lucky ones) lining up lucrative gigs in the North Sea

Replying to Jim above - the problem with Astute batch 2 is that PWR2 is finished and PWR3 is fatter than the hull. Astute with PWR3 is no longer Astute. It would be easier to make Australia into the SSN(R) program. The timelines actually such quite well, build starting mid 2030s, In terms of Austral...

what would the cost / safety be in upgrading / reactivating say Torbay and Trenchand to give us a fleet of 9 HMG should have taken the option to build an 8th Astute around the 2010 SDSR, but decided instead to waste money by slowing the build cycles. The public number being bounded around at the ti...

I think in practice the idea of designing and building at Barrow a type of vessel they haven't built in 40 years, in between Astute, Successor, SSN(R) and whatever we contribute to the RAN is a recipe for disaster. Especially if it's a single class with no followon or exports. If we really wanted SS...

Jeez I didn’t realise that a day at sea gets more expensive after you transit the Suez canal. I guess we paid 6 billion for a harbour ornament. Small power projection? It was massive. Historians may judge it may even have tipped the power balance calculations in terms of a potential invasion of Tai...

Apologies for the dragging to the right - from OPVs to WW3 in one thread

I doesn’t appear to be the view of government. The RN is not in anyway shape or form structured to counter China. I completely agree the scale / approach of the counter is different between the two. However, I judge HMG by their actions, rather than wording at a point in time. SDRs are virtually ou...

the problem I see already with Future Soldier, is that the Top Brass is looking too far in the future and is neglecting the present and near future. This is probably down to funding issues and future tech is always sexier than belt and braces requirements, especially when it comes to ticking boxes ...

Does anyone know why we didn't order bushmaster 15 years ago when we ordered the UOR vehicles? It was available at the time, or where they not able to meet the production numbers required in such a short space of time? I'm all for ordering Australian but the vehicle is over 20 years old now, would ...

That could make a great deal of sense. They could be built on a drumbeat over say 5ish years and gradually replace the ex-UOR vehicles as they fall apart. Another pillar to AUKUS. Though I'd at least try to standardise the engine on the Cummins B series (made in Lancashire, used in Jackal), Caterpil...

My take is that they're developing a platform alright, but they're developing it from the inside out. We're looking at a massive increase in power generation to facilitate directed energy, next gen sensors etc, That step change will in turn drive platform layout. So Maingate in 2025, RR/Japan produc...

Well that's a relief. Design by committee, what could go wrong

I've changed my mind, this is ridiculous, especially coming out of the defence budget.

Unless any additional desired changes can be effected within the existing timeframes for PIP or CAMM insertion, they are not a good idea for the T45s. Lack of availability due to the length of both PIP and CAMM insertion, together with insufficient T45s in the Fleet anyway, mean that this proposal ...

Distinction without a difference. Tempest is a project to create a Future Combat Air System with a target IOC of 2035. It is currently in concept and assessment phase, main gate scheduled for 2025. At that stage it becomes industrial. No one spends multiple billions in a “research project”

@Donald-san, completely agree it’s all down to requirements, but given that the current top three areas of potential conflict are the Black Sea/Eastern Med, South China Sea and Gulf (closely followed by the Baltics), having platforms optimised for forward based fighting in these regions shouldn’t b...

Must have been a pretty esoteric set of requirements. 12 metre turning circle is about the same as a Range Rover

The unit price was under $500k in 2019 vs over $1.25mm for Foxhound. Some of that is down to the composite materials used to reduce Foxhound weight but a lot of it is down to EOS. Foxhound was a failure on the export market so there is very little point sustaining it if the jobs will only last 5 ye...

If we purchase the JLTV direct from the US under FMS it is likely to be the cheapest option out of the platforms under consideration. I do think we need to broaden out search though, as many countries are now producing platforms of a type that would meet the MRV(P) phases one and two, South Africa ...