Is there another currently active aircraft that has seen more action over such a long period ? Time to start building a nice platform to park it on when it retires to Duxford or the IWM in London perhaps ?

I hope they rivet another plaque inside to commemorate this award.

All sorts of heritage and preservation movements are facing similar problems. One of my favorite railway websites that had thousands of photographs and hundreds of separate pages nearly went the same way when its brilliant webmaster passed away in his mid forties. No one had considered continuity planning then either.

The bit of BoB film where the Spit crashed on the Beach looked very realistic. Was that a real crash or a very clever mock-up with a model ?

Quite enjoyed the programme really.

I think todays excellent news re the Oil find in the Falklands by Rockhopper Exploration may well have assisted the case for the continuation of the CVF program. It appears that we may be seeing the beginnings of a major new Oil province in Falklands waters and todays news won’t have gone unnoticed at the UK treasury given the potential for serious inflow of significant funds for the next 50 odd years. Today might be the day that the story changed for CVF .:D

Mind you if I was planning an attack on the Falklands and with the Typhoon being about the best fighter in the Southern hemisphere I would spend a lot of effort trying to ensure that they never got off the ground to start with. Thats where Jimbobsimmonds scenario might well come into play.

My response – MRA4 with Stormshadow within a few days (much easier fuelling options) , followed by TacToms once the SSN’s were there.

Its probably fair to say that a couple of 2000lb LGB’s would put any major vessel at risk. You will see from that video how they penetrated the side of the vessel and not at an angle from above that would needed them to go through the deck had it been a carrier.

As to if they could get through the Carriers and support vessels countermeasures, thats another matter.

I hope they don’t scrap Argus. I was very impressed with the facilities when I went on board a couple of weeks ago. Hospital for 100 patients, about 20 emergency beds which looked extremely well equiped, three operating theatres, latest spec CT scanner, several x-ray machines. I believe it also has a lab for blood work etc. It was clear major money had been spent on her recently including an enormous circular ramp that went right through several decks of the ship for wheeling gurneys, plus two large new patient lifts.

Then you go below the rear deck and there is that enormous split hanger that looks like you could park 10-12 Sea Kings, Merlins or Harriers below. The bays can’t do this role without major expenditure and the hanger would always be smaller and above deck as the through deck lift on those is for small vehicles only and an underdeck hanger would restrict dock space anyway.

What chance some of these ships will be layed up rather than sold ?

H K, agreed 60 A400 for Germany always had the look of Pork Barrels about it to me as well.