I don't think any of the sailors would have ben laughing when the Kamikaze hit the ship with a bombs of up to 800 kg despite taking numerous hits from the Oerlikon 20mm and Bofors 40mm shells. An anti-ship missile is the modern day equivalent of an unmanned Kamikaze. No one is talking about using 3...

Quick update...the next 3 x F-35B to be delivered to the UK have flown already: BK-22 - ZM156 - First flight 29/06/21 BK-23 - ZM157 - First flight 03/08/21 BK-24 - ZM158 - First flight 02/09/21 If the delay to delivery of the next 3 F-35B, mentioned by Air International that were due this year, has ...

Seems a lot of hours for the number of airframes we have, I hope we are not knackering them out too quickly? Given the 3 test aircraft and BK-03 (the first UK 'combat capable' aircraft delivered in 2013) have been in service for close to an average of 9 years each I'd expect them each to have racke...

I am wondering if the fitting of 30mms were cancelled, and instead it was decided to wait until the 40mm is in service. We'd be seeing an order going in for them, which we haven't, and the order has been placed for the Bofors 40mm and 57mm already. They're not really a stock item so if you want the...

Ron5 wrote:So anonymous denizens of the online forums. Like us.

No named people...serving.

Lomger view of takeoff and climb out

https://twitter.com/AirbusDefence/status/1447507536672874507?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet - "plus associated lighter test aircraft" - Sounds like previous Zephyr generations being used alongside to prove flight control laws From the video it looks like this took pl...

Who is speculating? There have been a few people online (who would know) who have said as much. The below image of the Ise with the CSG pretty much confirms it. US CVN's don't have the full Prairie/Masker set up, just the Prairie part (the prop part). It appears Ise has both. https://i.imgur.com/7A...

RN is buying 10 (2 each for 5 hulls) Bofors 40mm gun for the Type-31 frigates. It can handle 3P rounds, which is "Pre-fragmented, Programmable, Proximity- fused". In other words, a single 3P round can do, air-burst mode, proximity mode, and time-gated proximity mode. It is good to counter...

seaspear wrote:Interesting comparing the wakes of the ships the Izumo class appears to create a lot of disturbance in its wake compared to the Q.E class ,is this something detectable?

The speculation is she's running her Prairie/Masker system.

Its wrong how much F-35 lift fan work RR has shifted to the States. Was it ever really here though? For years the 15% UK contribution figure was allowed to be repeated time and time again, when it never stood up to the closest examination. Now people are pretty certain that the built in the UK figu...

Gd new for Indianapolis but then America always supports America first. Don't forget the Indianapolis operation was originally Allison Engines, the F-130 came out of RR's collaboration with BMW. Ultimately though its great for RR in the UK as well, keeps the company competitive with regular revenue...

Not often you get a DS30M Mk.2 in action with a clear view of the target...and close up of effect. Taken at the Bushmaster User Conference held at Big Sandy range in the US. This is the mount that the USN and USCG appear to have chosen as the Mk.38 Mod 4. Will be going on all new build US vessels. Q...

Thought I'd better post these...couple of big wins for RR in the US military market. The B-52 re-engining is a massive win, on top of the huge order it guarantees 50 years of recurring maintenance work and upgrades, and sends a message to any other buyers of the engines that support and parts will b...

Of the six aircraft due this year, how many have been delivered up to the present date. Zero. But thats not unusual, the last few UK batches have tended to come at the end of the year. It now looks like there might be a delay on a number of them (according to the tweet above), which shouldn't come ...

The Australian company that made the MES must rub its hands in glee with each test....getting it back aboard, recertified and prepped for use again must have cost a pretty penny....

Mind you at least they don't have to get the divers out to retrieve the doors on these tests...

So they've discovered DSMAC and Terprom....

What's the re-base-lining that he mentions? Production has fallen somewhat due to COVID. Whats not mentioned is Turkey's ejection from the programme must have caused some delays as well. LM delivered 120 F-35 in 2020, 21 short of the production goal. 133-139 to be delivered in 2021, about 20 short ...

Won't be long for no.7 to arrive...ZP807 is flying.

Why has the RN never gone in for the Prairie/Masker system? UK had/has its own system called Agouti RN has had a greater focus on reducing signature on ships for longer than the US, but they have used the Prairie part on Type 22 Batch 2's. The props had the 'Agouti' system, which worked similar to ...

Why would a single stage motor give more speed? With a kick motor you lose space with the venturi(s) for the main motor having to run through the kick motor, unless its seperated as a seperate stage (like Starstreak, which brings complications and expense). Having one motor avoids failure points, c...

GarethDavies1 wrote:The photo of the single stage rocket is interesting as it would give more speed. Has it been tested by Thales or purely a paper concept?

These were options that Thales said could be developed as LMM is modular. All would require funding, some more than others.

So would the first stage rocket simply eject the missile from its cannister? Yes, its a kick motor. It's stopped firing by the time the missile exhaust exist the tube, the 2nd stage ignites when the missile is clear of the canister and operator/platform. You can see this clearly in the Wildcat vide...

Ron5 wrote:The second video appears to be of an earlier event.

The second video shows the formation from the 2nd half of the first video.