Presumably these wings are not of a new design but just same old same old ?

Well they ‘only’ have 20 plus vessels to lose if you include the assault ships. As to whether the smaller SSK’s could ever fire off enough conventional torpedoes to sink a Supercarrier before they were scragged by one of the escorts or airwing is a moot point, but they could no doubt seriously disable one. I suspect only the USN knows the answer and that fact that they have had the Gottland on trials for 2 years suggests the threat is pretty real as others have said.

Can’t see anyone going Nimrod, and I am not sure if its even being marketed. There may be some spare airframes in Storage (the RAF can’t afford to run as many as it used to) but the costs would be prohibitive as the UK government have found, as 90 odd percent of the aircraft are new. The MR4A has got a new wing that is apparently optimised for that kind of work.
This version seems to now have a wider role than just maritime.

Exactly, now we have moved into a different kind of warfare they are probably more use in Littoral ops in support of special forces, although realistically they might just be a bit too large for that, but I think you can construct a case for most of the other SSK’s in use at the moment by various Navies.

Thats the version of the F-35 the Brits are getting. :diablo: Tony Blair forgot to mention to the MOD that he was forced to make a few technical compromises in order to get operational sovereignty 😮 :rolleyes:

Defence talk today reported that India turned down the last 8 Harrier FA-2’s that the UK government has offered them. I think they should seal them up in an atmospherically controlled shed somewhere on a just in case basis.

I must admit I am more confident about the future of Japanese aviation now that Honda have made a move into aviation. If anyone will get the Japanese ducks in a straight line in the long term, it will be Honda.