Anyone know where RFA Fort Victoria is she’s not at Cammell Lairds and her AIS is turned off 🤔 According to this, she last had AIS turned on during the 12th. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:184838/mmsi:233135000/imo:8606032/vessel:FORT_VICTORIA If she's at sea, hopefully a...

Generous of her to share her ability to spew rambling nonsense with the Defence community.

What none of the Hastings/Hitchens crowd ever seem to question is: why are most of the top ten economies in the world, and some below, operating/building/planning fixed wing aviation at sea?

1: CAMM/ER/MR. I personally do not think CAMM-MR is important for RN. Might be good for Army, but too much overlap with Aster 30, I think. Rather I think - more CAMM cells - adding CAMM-ER is popping up as a good reaction. CAMM official range is 25 km = capable to shoot down highly maneuverable ASM...

Concerning the T31 weapons fit - are they not getting the NSM from the T23 when they retire ? so instead of getting possible 8,16 or 32 mk 41 would it be better ( cheaper ) to fit ExLS for just CAMM, as they will be our tier 2 ships & save the high end FCASW stock for the T26 & tier1 ships ...

PS good to see those “short ranged” typhoons going a long way! The announcement doesn't actually mention RAF Akrotiri - I reckon they flew from KSA. (but obviously noone's going to give that kind of detail ) It was Akritori. The footage of the Typhoons and Voyagers taking off are all over the news:...

BBC is reporting strikes against Yemen. I think that both UK carriers are in the UK, so any UK air strikes would be using Typhoon. Would that be from Cyprus or would UK Typhoons be based somewhere in the Gulf? Perhaps UK is only using ships/submarines - the news so far is not clear. MoD is saying f...

https://www.aerosociety.com/news/the-only-way-is-tempest/ I see JSF Justin has chimed in: feels to me like the UK concentrating all Air Ministry resources on Avro Vulcan development in 1936 rather than Hurricanes, Spitfires, Blenheims, Whitleys and Wellingtons. How on earth is Bronk taken seriously...

It will be interesting to see the size of the order. A quick google shows the Saudis currently operating 80 F15C/Ds with an average age of 37 years. It could be substantial, especially given the threat situation. Even 48 would lead nicely into GCAP, 8-12 per year from say 2025 plus support of Germa...

Germany allows the sale of Typhoons to KSA. FINALLY https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/deutschland-eurofighter-saudi-arabien-100.html Let's hope it's not too late and the French haven't got their foot in the door. Good for KSA to have Dassault in the frame. If an airline has a fleet of A320's ...

SiVisPacemParaBellum wrote: ↑07 Jan 2024, 21:00 Germany allows the sale of Typhoons to KSA.
FINALLY
https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien ... n-100.html

Let's hope it's not too late and the French haven't got their foot in the door.

The one bottom left dos look T26 ish but as you say very low resolution. The 'main' escort with the radar beam looks more T45 or ASF. The whole thing is so low resolution to be meaningless though apart from it sort of hints at a networked set of ships fitting in with current buzzwords. So this is t...

Ok. Now I can finally see them the ships look nothing like T26. Very much line T45 bow, bridge, funnels. And radar looks nothing like current CEAFAR installs. The ship that looks like Type 26 is the one on the bottom left that has the distinct shape of a Hunter Class. Albeit at such a low resolutio...

You'd have to assume that Sylver is on the way out, taking Aster with it. CAMM / CAMM-MR / SM-6? I’ve got a feeling this may be exactly how it’s going to go. I would be very happy with that personally. Covers all current threats and even some land attack with RIM-174B. If we find ourselves in a sit...

If that's vaguely accurate… This has nothing to do with Frigates. It’s all about operating both CVFs simultaneously. The axe is swinging wildly now. Good thing we prioritised our future solid supply shipping too! It's not as if we've exactly gone to town on our carrier strike capability and enabler...

If only we hadn’t had 2 defence reviews in 3 years and put forward a coherent set of tasks to be done and by what. Nice to know the one thing Wallace appears to have successfully fought for has failed. I hope the next government takes a bulldozer to Main Building. There will be nothing changing, fr...

SW1 wrote: ↑05 Jan 2024, 21:46 If only we hadn’t had 2 defence reviews in 3 years and put forward a coherent set of tasks to be done and by what.

Nice to know the one thing Wallace appears to have successfully fought for has failed.

I hope the next government takes a bulldozer to Main Building.

The move would free more than 200 sailors to crew new ships. If that's vaguely accurate, and we've only got roughly 200 crew for both, then it's time to sell them. Two very expensive assets that are still young enough to find buyers. The Navy clearly don't care and have their priorities elsewhere. ...

The second image I have ever seen of BAE "T83 cruiser design" Its in one of the google adds of the latest Navy lookout articles You've got a good eye! At the very least this confirms the previous images of this design featured in an Aussie PowerPoint. The closest 'Type 26' looks like it's...

The article looks bad in the first two paragraphs: it says that HMS west mister has already been refit when she was set to be refit. Then it says that the crew will be moved to T26, despite there still being a long period until T26 service, And even if this was true then it would go against the art...

Is there any merit in using cheap drones to destroy cheap drones? I suppose the defence drones would need a guidance system so that would up the cost but still cheaper than a traditional AAW missile. Deployed in a standard sized container onto a mission bay for extra flexibility. If they're single ...

Don't get me wrong, I think B-21 is likely to be a fantastic platform and I'd love to see some in UK service however it has little to no UK content and is likely too rich for our blood, if not in purchase price then MRO costs. Part of the reason the US is pursuing a 'Century Series' approach to thei...

Since the rumor that ExLS maybe going on the T26's could that mean that when the T45's go in to get CAMM fitted from 2026, that they get ExLS launchers instead of the mushroom launchers ? or maybe a combo of 6 x ExLS ( quad packed CAMM giving 24 missiles ). & 8 x mk41 that could give more optio...

The Polish order at 3 billion for 3 is an interesting comparison for the UK order of 2 billion for 5. Seems none of the British selected sensors and weapons are good enough for the Poles. Maybe they want something more than embassy parties and a few dead pirates. Short of secretly building another ...

The Polish order at 3 billion for 3 is an interesting comparison for the UK order of 2 billion for 5. Seems none of the British selected sensors and weapons are good enough for the Poles. Maybe they want something more than embassy parties and a few dead pirates. Short of secretly building another ...

Some interesting updates and details on Poland's Type 31s: https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/12/miecznik-for-eur-3-6-billion-all-frigates-fully-armed/ The Armament Agency has announced that the serial frigates (the second and third units) will recieve sensors and effectors the same as those ...