FedaykinIndeed China knows it hasn’t got a chance of winning the Marine 1 contract but that isn’t the point.
Its more about saying to the world:
“Look here we are!”
Its amusing to say the least…as for John Kirkland well its publicity isn’t it!
FedaykinDS30 would be difficult with article one of the antarctic treaty, the biggest thing Endurance carried was her MK44 minigun which can be locked below deck in keeping with treaty regulations.
Watch 37 minutes in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCXJz1Ua8aw&feature=channel
FedaykinMight be difficult getting an export licence as they have some very sensative UK and American technology in them.
FedaykinIf you replace the rotor, gearbox, wiring, avionics, cockpit & engines, you’re not far off a bare metal gutting – but you’re doing it to 30-40 year old aircraft, out of production for many years, being withdrawn from service around the world, instead of modern aircraft, still in production & selling & with an expanding support system.
Ahhh but we are not talking the whole fleet and many are newer then 30-40 years old. Actually the last Westland Sea King was built during 1990.
I personally think at least the SAR Sea King fleet should be retained and upgraded rather then the PFI nonsense.
Also the Sea King has a very old school over engineered airfame, certainly tougher then the Merlins. As I said the airframe is not the major stress component in a helicopter, with a strip down and rebuild there is no reason why they could operate for many more years. This is why there is such a thriving market for overhauled/remanufactured secondhand helicopters.
FedaykinWhy buy a fighter if you don’t intend to use it. Hiding them somewhere might work (actually Serbia were surprisingly effective at it) but you are taking a big risk especially if your enemy SEAD/DEAD capabilities are up to scratch.
Also what sortie rate are we talking about in the air policing role? 4-6 airframes is barely enough to maintain QRA if you want to do basic training and maintenance. Some countries do it but at the price of shorter airframe life.
I have nothing against SAMS within an integrated air defence network, actually this is an area that I feel the UK has a weakness but in the end given the choice fighters give you more bang for the buck!
FedaykinBeen tried before and it just doesn’t work.
SAMS are useless for normal air policing! How does a SAM go up to escort a stray Cessna or intercept a civil airliner with a broken transponder? These are all things that your F7BG can do!
Fighters allow you flexibility to respond to a number of different situations.
FedaykinMarinization of HC3 will involve pretty much a bare metal gutting of the helicopter plus replacement of significant systems with ones that are suitable for use at sea.
Sea King is already marinized and there are upgrade packages already in place.
The work involved to upgrade Sea King is pretty much bread and butter work for Fleetlands:
Rotor
Gearbox
wiring
avionics
cockpit
engines
All been done before and not exactly anything to lose sleep over. As for sensors well take it or leave it really but again not a big deal!
FedaykinEDIT: i noticed your question only after posting.
Re-build the Sea King is likely to be costlier than converting the HC3, and it would still give us an ancient airframe, at a time when Sea King is going slowly out of service and into history.
I have to disagree with you there Liger30, it would be cheaper to overhaul and upgrade the Sea King then navalise the Merlin HC3. Remember unlike fixed wing aircraft the major stress component on a helicopter is not the airframe but the transmission and engines both if which can be replaced! Many of the Sea King airframes are actually rather new and they are marinised unlike the Merlin HC3. Carson helicopters offer a very affordable replacement rotor and transmission package (the rotors are already being used by UK Sea Kings in A-Stan). Fit the helicopters with a variant of the Thales TopDeck cockpit upgrade planned for the Chinook fleet and throw in the Wescam MX15 planned for the Lynx Wildcat on a removable mount. Engines could be an issue but either twist Rolls-Royces arms over replacement Gnomes or again go to Carson who are offering fresh GE T58-16 which should pretty much just drop in (actually just the threat of going GE should get RR to play ball!). Eventually get Fleetlands to do the work and bingo you have a more then capable upto date fleet of helicopters.
FedaykinOdd choice for a carrier trainer.
Looks like an emergency airfield tail hook to me.
FedaykinWell lets sell them a Bay
You misunderstand me, the UK IS going to dispose of a Bay class LSL. It was announced as part of the ssdr last year, considering how new the Bay class are and a number of navies have recently expressed a desire for this class of vessel there is a ready market.
FedaykinNo a Bay, the UK is keeping the Albion class.
They have the best command and control facilities now the Invincible class are on the way out.
FedaykinPlanes that are only good for A2A use, can not be upgraded fully to T3, with parts that make the wings too weak to carry weapons like Storm Shadow, and will never be fully compatible with the rest of their fleet?
It’d make sense for a country that only operates T1 (Austria?) or a country that only needs a few cheap a/c for A2A use (Romania?) but not many others.
Indeed. And I seem to remember that Typhoons were designed with a relatively short life on them compared to other fighters to begin with, 6000 hours was it? Not the best basis for a sale.
Actually this is a BIG opportunity for the Austrian airforce!
Whilst I can’t see them taking on any surplus RAF T1 Typhoon this is a chance to remedy shortcomings with their own Typhoon.
Austrian Typhoon lack DASS with the government deleting the capability. The systems could be cannibalised from the retiring RAF T1 and fitted to the Austrian examples. They could also take the opportunity to buy the T1 unique components on the airframes for spares.
They have actually done this before cannibalising RWR from retiring Danish Draken to fit to their own fleet.
FedaykinI’d have to concur with SH if 4th gen is the only choice as its one of if not the best 4th gen fighter they could hope for.
If they have a realistic vision of future air combat and want to take it seriously they should go for the F-35, plus by the time Canada decides what to buy the production price of the F-35 should have dropped considerably.
Well as regular members of the forum know I regard the whole generation thing with contempt.;)
Looking at things seriously does Canada really need a type with major stealth capability with their current threat environment. Super Hornet will have no problem intercepting hijacked civil airliners and when it comes to military intrusions we are talking about nosey Russian Tu95, Tu-160 and IL-38 something the CF-101 Voodoo was able to do twenty five years ago!
As for air combat capability the USN seems to be happy with the capability the Super Hornet offers with its modern AESA radar, JHMCS, Aim9x and AIM120 combination.
For me the Super Hornet should be a sensible contender for the AIRCOM even if they do the same as the Australians and purchase a small number to replace the oldest CF-188 and wait to take later cheaper blocks of F35 to finally replace the legacy fleet.
FedaykinCame across this article a short while ago:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper scolded the Liberals on Friday over their criticism of the Conservatives’ multibillion dollar plan to purchase 65 fighter jets from a U.S. manufacturer.
Ottawa expects to pay $9 billion for the F-35 jets, which would be delivered by 2016. With service costs, however, the price tag could jump to $16 billion.
The issue is likely to become a key divider in the next federal election, where fiscal planning is expected to figure prominently.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has said he would scrap the sole-source purchase, which would replace Canada’s aging CF-18s, and open up the process to multiple bidders.
For Canadas choice of the F-35, there seems to be a lot of mixed feelings about the decisions made. Theres even quite a few mixed feelings in that article and a lot on the comments section.
So it seems that if the Liberal Leader had his way, he’d scrap the F-35 and open up the process to multiple bidders.
And that got me thinking, what other aircraft would Canada like to have on offer? Typhoon, Rafale, Gripen? Any others that anyone would think would suite their needs? Personally I’d think the first two I mentioned would be ideal for Canada.
Kind regards
To be honest Super Hornet would do the job very well for Canada. It can carry every weapon already used by their CF-188 fleet, offer a low cost transition burden for their personel, support for years to come due to the large USN purchase and its more then capable of handling the role.
FedaykinInteresting but it must be remembered that the USN operated a KH-31 variant the MA-31 from 1996 through to 2007 as an interim target drone solution. So they are well aware of its performance profile. I presume this is more about preventing the onsale of the missiles to an undesirable end customer.
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