Merely highlighting some context of the graphic, nothing more Fair play. :thumbup: Would have taken a screen shot instead but had that graphic on hand. No doubt up at Warton there's all manner of fascinating clues to UK aircraft design development carried out over the last 30 years. Sadly unlikely ...

Surely what ever option is chosen we are going to need an angled flight deck? At the sort of weights/size/capability proposed for Vixen, that would be my assumption. I'd also want a second catapult for redundancy and maintenance. However.... frankly who knows? BMT, BAE and Thales spent decades look...

That graphic dates back to 2018, it came out around the same time as the Tempest concept got revealed Yes. Was pointing to the evolution of early 90s concepts > Replica > Tempest As I said above, the Typhoon was not even named at this time, and the X-35 was barely a blink in the eye of the design t...

An outstandingly well detailed and thought through piece from Navy Lookout: https://www.navylookout.com/cats-traps-and-uas-the-royal-navy-considers-options-for-carrier-launched-drones/ https://www.navylookout.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-VIXEN-LANCA-MOSQUITO.jpg Covers a great ...

For any Prime Video subscribers, I watched this last night: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71aetMaQ2HL._SX300_.jpg https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B01DED7P6G/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r From 1992, with lots of contemporary footage of Warton, Farnborough, the EAP and the yet unna...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-rPlJ9iNoc Carrying Boris to Teesside last week. Civil registration, contractor operated. Not RAF. Apparently flown to Jakarta today, following a stop in Dubai. Makes one wonder what future, if any, Vespina has outside of conflict zones or other high risk VVIP travel.

Saab have offered that level of offset if I remember correctly (so did Rafale when they were in it). I would also consider bearing in mind the Finland bid is something like $12-14 Billion, it's likely they have some stringent demands as far as offset is concerned so 'desperate' is a bit of a stretc...

Offering final assembly would suggest that Warton is going to be very quiet from the final Qatari delivery until the mid 2030s. Not sure how that fits in with the 'prosperity agenda'... Fits in more than putting UK-assembly in the final bid and the UK gets nothing ... Perhaps, if the other competin...

BAE upping the ante in Finland: https://twitter.com/BAES_Finland/status/1377249550885384201?s=19 Edit: Few more details from Flight Global: https://www.flightglobal.com/defence/uk-details-eurofighter-pitch-for-finland-with-no-financial-surprises/143139.article Andrea Thompson, BAE Systems’ managing ...

https://twitter.com/raestimr/status/1376963358629453829?s=21 Not sure exactly why none this couldn’t of been explained in the defence white paper Ok, somehow three different defence journalists (two on previous page) attended the same virtual conference and came away with three different ratios of ...

I seem to remember BAE did something similar in the dying day of the Tonka:

Scimitar54 wrote:R09 in ‘23?

Might be closer to home!

Somewhat conflicting numbers, however the gist and timeline is definitely interesting: https://twitter.com/bealejonathan/status/1376866047635156993?s=19 https://twitter.com/harry_lye/status/1376867327493427200?s=19 Full video of Gen. Nick Carter's IISS speech to go up tomorrow. P.S: Could we do with...

The Dutch are coming along for the ride:

Surprisingly long Daily Express article (although somewhat flexible with facts): https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/secondary/Leonardo-UK-2975219.webp?r=1616922939767 https://admin.express.co.uk/news/uk/1415845/best-of-british-military-news-brexit-global-britain-aw149-leonardo-uk-in...

can it be used in a marine setting as well. There's two types regularly used in that setting - why would we make it three? Good to know we have enough Merlins & Wildcats to support all those MRSS :roll: The Army Air Corps has all the maritime helicopters the Royal Navy could want (with a few mo...

Good article in Vertical Mag, with some further detail from Leonardo on the AW149: https://verticalmag.com/news/leonardo-to-pitch-aw149-for-raf-puma-replacement/ Mentions numbers of 30-40 but that the order might be lower. As an aside, the Egyptian Navy is currently set to be the largest user, (whic...

No doubt the Red Arrows will be surprised to hear that they're now flying Hawk T2... T1 Typhoons for the Arrows please. Even if its 5 or 6 instead of 9. Total fantasy i know. Is it not about time that the non-frontline “Red Arrows” were superseded by the Frontline “Lightning Bolts”? :mrgreen: https...

The USN is questioning whether even MK57 cells are going to be large enough for their future, surface launched weapons: The after-market payload module is necessary because the conventional prompt strike missiles are at least 30 inches in diameter, and the current 80-cell VLS launcher on the DDG-100...

Some background speculation by Navy Lookout from a year ago, when the MRSS concept first emerged and was promptly dropped: https://www.navylookout.com/multi-role-support-ships-for-the-royal-navy-one-size-fits-all/ Main differences, from 12 months ago, are that FSS is now a separate programme, and th...

The story goes that Westlands used Hawker Hurricane wings as the source for the winged Merlin and borrowed a pair from a museum for measurements. By the way, nice summary Jensy but I expect actual events were rather less joined up. I'd love that to be true, if for no other reason than bringing back...

No doubt the Red Arrows will be surprised to hear that they're now flying Hawk T2...

Though by Telegraph standards not too bad. Would have half expected a reference to the Royal Navy's Sea Hawks serving for 68 years since 1953!

Would that be a commando merlin then ? Short answer, yes. However, as with anything Merlin related, there's a long twisted road leading to where we are now. Once upon a time, when the carriers were still in a design stage, there was a requirement for a Future Organic Airborne Early Warning replacem...

Another two lives saved by Martin Baker!

Return of the Sea Vixen? https://www.naval-technology.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/03/Ready_for_Release_F35_18_01_21-1.jpg From Naval Technology: https://www.naval-technology.com/news/royal-navy-project-vixen-exploring-potential-carrier-uas/ The UK Royal Navy is exploring how a large fixed-wi...