Ignoring the platforms, and focusing purely on politics, my money's on Airbus. Should the programme go ahead before the election. Why do you think that? Alyn and Deeside is a far more marginal constituency than Yeovil. It's had a Labour MP since it was created in 1983. Even if things got a bit dice...

Ron5 wrote: ↑24 Feb 2024, 13:37

Jensy wrote: ↑23 Feb 2024, 11:16 Ignoring the platforms, and focusing purely on politics, my money's on Airbus. Should the programme go ahead before the election.

Why do you think that?

Alyn and Deeside is a far more marginal constituency than Yeovil.

Ignoring the platforms, and focusing purely on politics, my money's on Airbus. Should the programme go ahead before the election. One would hope Leonardo's industrial promises aren't taken seriously anymore by the MoD. Not to mention they have RN PROTEUS (the programme not the ship) to keep them bus...

RichardIC wrote: ↑21 Feb 2024, 16:21 Ok, so slightly larger above-deck footprint but nothing like the mass above or below deck.

I see, four years later, you're still not able to accept when you're incorrect...

A salient point on the 57mm Bofors. Was met with disbelief some years ago, when I pointed out that its turret is larger overall than the BAE MK 45 127mm. Doesn't give dimensions, but according to BAE's datasheet the Mk 45 above-and-below deck weight in nearly 60k kg without ammunition. For the Mk 1...

By the way, the Bofors 57mm is a surprisingly large system. I suspect there would be little or no savings in space over a Mk 8. A salient point on the 57mm Bofors. Was met with disbelief some years ago, when I pointed out that its turret is larger overall than the BAE MK 45 127mm. If we were flush ...

Fascinating warship discussion here chaps...

Presumably this is more on whatever the USAF have specified and how that contrasts to those for UK/AUS/RoK/TK. The later three of which haven't specifically been mentioned in any of these stories. Not exactly a perfect example but there are 767s which have been modified to be tankers but differ wild...

Following on from what I posted above: https://www.defensenews.com/air/2024/02/15/tricky-e-7-adaptations-complicate-us-air-force-boeing-negotiations/ “We’re having a hard time with [the E-7 program], getting price agreement with Boeing,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters in a roundtab...

Some interesting context for both our E-7 purchase and the USAF's procurement of the 'same' platform: Service officials thought their requirements were close to the E-7s that the U.K. has already begun procuring from Boeing, [USAF acquisition chief, Andrew] Hunter told reporters here. “Those discuss...

We'd need at least one other base and hundreds of people for this fleet alone to hit 138. Just out of sheer curiosity, if there were to be enough 'extra' F35's to justify it, which previous but currently non-active airfield is still close enough to being operational to be worth reactivating? Any of...

I would see it nearly exactly the opposite way round. The istar aircraft manned the strike ones not. Yes for persistence uavs can have a useful role but having specialist operators on station and controlling uavs within line of sight of the airborne istar aircraft has benefits. Having single use un...

Any production loyal wingman will not be cheap, will not be soon and will not be as capable as most folks think. Not clear they're needed anyway. There seems to be a desperation to push UAVs/RPASs into as many roles as possible. With the assumption being that because say an MQ-4C or MQ-9B excells i...

Any production loyal wingman will not be cheap, will not be soon and will not be as capable as most folks think. Not clear they're needed anyway. There seems to be a desperation to push UAVs/RPASs into as many roles as possible. With the assumption being that because say an MQ-4C or MQ-9B excells i...

The Gerald Ford Class has not exactly been without its in service hiccups. See also India's first home built carrier. In truth, for a country that hasn't laid down fleet carriers in the best part of century, we could be doing a lot worse. We're clearly becoming very accustomed to fixing the prop sha...

SW1 wrote: ↑17 Jan 2024, 13:51 Warton are also assembling a couple tempest development test aircraft

Has it been officially stated that there's more than one Tempest demonstrator planned?

Not doubting and cearly sensible considering the history of aircraft development. Just haven't seen a reference before.

I am not optimistic about KSA placing a follow on order unless price is no barrier. Same thing for another RAF order. Why pay for 4G Typhoon when 5G F-35 is cheaper, especially if F-35A. The peace dividend may be a thing of the past for the UK but that does not mean it is OK to spend extra funding ...

How many more Typhoons are still to be delivered from the UK assembly line? Will there be a break if a KSA order is placed late this year? Deliveries started in August 2022 and reached the midpoint in the same month last year. So it seems likely that assembly will be ending sometime in the next sev...

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...