The other curious but silly thing to come up in the papers the last few days is the inference that the RAF were not happy about getting 16 Typhoon airframes due contract obligations with the partner nations. Pure fantasy!

Every extra airframe puts less strain on the fleet as a whole, making it easier to meet the out of service date without costly structural updates.

Well the answer is simple Grey Area, Key Publishing should launch a naval magazine similar to Air Forces Monthly lets say:

Navies Monthly

I feel Key Publishing could do a far better job then the hysterically partisan and anti anything that isn’t the navy “Warships international fleet review magazine”.

Just an idea:D

Then we can happily talk about warships without you having to remind us that it is an aviation forum…

Exactly and this is where I see real waste, Nimrod should be doing ASW, military maritime patrol and ISTAR.

The policing of our fisheries, civil maritime surveillance of cargo ships and SAR top cover should be done by the Coast Guard. That is what they are meant to be there for so why is the RAF involved? I would even say that helicopter SAR should be entirely Coast Guard as well maybe even Mountain rescue.

Then operate a far smaller dedicated CSAR tasked unit maybe even a joint Army, RAF and Navy squadron operating Merlin. That way we have the civil SAR and Mountain rescue covered and the military need for CSAR looked after.

Another idea it has pointed out recently that a significant cost is personel and for the RAF we should look at reservist pilots like what is done in the US and Canada. This would tie in nicely with SAR and mountain rescue being entirely civillian. A number of the pilots could be reservists with the bonus that their currency is kept up from the civil budget. In the event of an emergency they get activated and placed with active units.

As Buitreaux points out the mistakes made by the Argentine Junta and millitary were numerous and it is dificult to pin down one major flaw but many millitary planners point out that the failure to extend the runway at Stanley with the steel matting they had purchased from the US was a critical mistake.

By extending the runway with steel matting they could of operated fast jets from Stanley. Their strike packages would no longer of been fuel critical over the task force and they could of operated CAP with the Mirage 3. When operated with plenty of fuel, at altitude and speed the Mirage has better performance then the Sea Harrier as proven when the RAAF Mirage 3 thrashed RN sea harriers in exercises a year or so after the Falklands.

They should of had a cargo ship rented with the matting on and several hundred tons of gravel and army engineers plus equipment ready to go at the beginning of the invasion.

Well yes and no, remember the UK had removed British citizenship in 81 to the Islanders and was clearly gearing up to discretely hand over soverignty to Argentina somewhen in the 80’s. The Argentines were already operating the airport at Stanley and everything from education through to supplies came from Argentina. The UK was cutting back the navy to focus on fighting an ASW war in the north atlantic.

Now the Falkland Islanders are British citizens and we have a NATO standard airbase on the Islands. Argentinas armed forces are in a worse state then during the invasion and haven’t the capacity to take on the Island defences before reinforcements arrive by air.

It is interesting to note that the letter that Fox sent to the PM stated cutting Nimrod seriously impacted on the UK’s Falkland response plan.

Once again, I hope this isn’t a stupid question, but do you need AEW aircraft if there’s a Type 45 with Sampson radar in company? I thought it could see out to 400km.

Well Sampson and S1850M can see further then Searchwater 2000 but not below the Horizon. With sea skimmer missiles even subsonic ones the ship has a matter of seconds to detect, classify and engage. AEW allows more time to see low flying threats.

This old Horizon documentary has a good overview of the issue:

Horizon – Part 1

Horizon – Part 2

Horizon – Part 3

Horizon – Part 4

Horizon – Part 5

Horizon – Part 6

Whilst the navy has liked the T22B3 with its flexible equipment, weapons and C3I fit sacrificing T23 to keep them in service they are getting on a bit now with a heavy crewing requirement and unique systems like the Sea Wolf box launcher.

Remember the Albion class has excellent C4ISTAR facilities to make up for T22B3 loss in that area. Also I have a hunch that MOD would like to sell the T22B3.