The UK ones have 35 years of practice of what on occasion was very similar to urban warfare in Northern Ireland, they developed various techniques to ensure they were not fired at by heavy machine guns and RPG’s, one of which was never to arrive at the scene of the incident in the Helo but to go somewhere random up to a couple of miles away and to arrive on foot or from a Landrover that they picked up and carried under the helo. This way they avoided ambushes. There were all sorts of other tricks they used as well based upon bitter experience. No doubt they are doing similar in Iraq.

Illustrious and Bulwark on way for evacuation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5184018.stm

SteveO, yes they look good don’t they, if only the government would let the royal marines have a few to go in the new amphibious fleet

There is no chance of the UK having any of these, not when its got 232 Eurofighters in the pipeline which is about 80 more than they really need. Also the UK is deficient in other areas and any spare money would be far more likely to be spent on this than Raptors

Yes, that is an excellent point

In spite of what Beedle is saying I just don’t see it being cancelled now, particularly as the French are now on board and due to the recent improved optics around the JSF. It is more likely that some of the other projects will be cut or delayed.

Quite why the RN persists in upgrading the type 23’s with improved sonar at great expense baffles me as the the major submarine threat disappeared with the cold war. There might be some savings to be made there