Shallow minded comment by shallow minded person… British aid for 2009 to India is less than one billion pounds.. still might sound a lot .. until you examine where it actually goes. 70% of it is actually used to prop up British interests in India… for example companies that trade with UK or ogranisations that are of benefit to UK… it would be like USA saying look at the bilions of “Aid” we give to Saudi Arabia… when in fact it has nothing to do with aid but self serving economic and strategic interests.

Other 30% is actually used for charitable work, like health and enviromental help for locals… on total scale its peanuts… and it only serves to make British feel better for robbing that country blind for hundred years… or have we forgoten where the “crown jewels ” (like star of INDIA) came from and how were they stole.. i mean “acquired” me ol chap ???

In real terms India could give a toss what UK does with its aid.. though such public over-beat up of non issue might cause Indians to pause and rethink some of their procurement decisions in future… like Hawks.. or Typhoon chances in MMRCA….:rolleyes:

How dare you call me shallow minded!

I have reported you to the mods for abusive comments!

I was only expressing mild bemusement with a curious situation! That we give AID to a country that has a MULTIBILLION dollar defence budget!

I’m not surprised that an F-22 would get spotted so far away as it was up against an L-band radar and a very powerful one at that. Coupled with the X-band APAR radar the F-22 would stand very little chance of being able to hide from a well developed AAW system operated by competent people. If people know much about radar bands and the frequencies in these bands as well as the processing techniques used to extract target information add that to a basic knowledge if stealth this will not be surprising. That is of course if this did happen but things like this do happen all the time but we just don’t hear about them.

Indeed, if this is all true its hardly surprising.

Ships can carry large radar array, with plenty of power and space for computers.

Whilst the F-22 is optimised to defeat X band radar systems with all the processing power available on a ship and the L band radar providing information as well its more then capable of engaging this fighter.

The type 45 with its next generation S band SAMPSON an its active homing ASTER should be even more lethal a threat.

The F35B will be a rare visitor to a CVN as is the Harrier now, no reason why they can’t.

Just do a rolling take off from the deck.

OK not an AV8B but here is a pic of a Seaharrier operating from the Eisenhower:

michelf touches on the idea that the improvements are within the realm of possible. Very rarely has the infrastructure not been improved with the advent of new aircraft models. This is a completely normal evolution of the force structure. In reality the upgrades match pretty close in timing for scheduled maintenance and improvements of the same airfields. It merely piggybacks the new construction onto the current programs of reconstruction that would have taken place anyhow.

Indeed the ramps at any airfield will be periodically resurfaced anyway, just a case of fitting in with that cycle.

Not ignoring the fact that many ramps can happily take the weight of heavier aircraft then the a330…this is an issue blown out of all proportion by some.

On the other as Michelf says if their is no room for a runway extension or land ownership issues then your bang out of luck!

Yes, CNS Almirante Williams (FF-19) (ex-HMS Sheffield), a batch 2 ship.

She was decommissioned from the RN on 5 November 2002, and commissioned in the Armada de Chile on 4 September 2003.

She began a refit in March 2008, in ASMAR Talcahuano for installation of OTO 76 mm gun, Harpoon anti-ship missile and Barak SAM instead of Sea Wolf for defence.

She just recently was returned to service,conducting her post-refit trials last month, so she was unavailable for the photo shoot Tango III posted from.

There are pics & discussion (in Spanish) here: http://base.mforos.com/730111/3280645-fragata-tipo-22-2-ff-19-almirante-williams/?pag=23
Page 23 & all of page 24.

I bet Brazil and Romania will take a close look at the result of this refit especially in respect of Barak.

The diagram shows Harpoon in a central position.

The thing is there is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to HARM and ALARM including the 99 vs 1 shot from Kosovo.

The fact is they are different systems developed for different situations.

First of we need to understand that the ALARM is a far more expensive system then HARM and this is mainly due to the nature of the launch platforms.

The US can afford to have dedicated SEAD/DEAD types in service with the sensors and smarts built into the airframe itself, as a system most of the thinking is done on the aircraft and HARM is a cheap way of introducing an offensive punch.

For the RAF which didn’t have any dedicated SEAD/DEAD aircraft in service needed a missile with the major sensors and smarts built into the weapon.

Next the method of attack is different with 5 different preprogrammed attack modes all utilising a zoom climb. When the missile is attacking a radar site rather then coming in on the strong horizontal sidelobes that will in effect blink on and off it will track and home the weaker vertical lobes which will always be visible.

Whilst many of people have talked about the loiter mode I don’t think it has been used much (if at all) with the direct attack mode more usually being used with the programmed in zoom climb.

I have a further hunch that with the launch profile of ALARM that radar operators might not as readily realise they under attack.

How does the KC-30 compare to the KC-10?

Well the most notable difference came up during the RAF selection process…

With the VC10 operating out of Brize Norton and the a330 launching from Tolouse in France the a330 could stay an extra hour on station over the North Sea.

Yes the V-22 IS an aircraft. And it is only speculation in the media that it was because the KC-30 could not refuel the V-22 because it is not able to fly slow enough that it FAILED TO MEET said requirement. In fact it is the opposite. The KC-30 is unable to perform emergency breakaway procedures because it is unable to accelerate/climb/fly FAST enough.

BS. IT was ENCOURAGED & REQUESTED to do so!

And failing to prove that the KC-30 could means FAILING TO MEET said requirement. NG/EADS even admitted that it couldn’t do it & proposed a ‘fix’ that it claimed would enable it to do so. CLAIMING to have a ‘fix’ for an identified shortcoming isn’t good enough.

There was NO requirement to fuel the V22 in the previous contest, in the end EADS offered a fix anyway…but they didn’t have to as they were not asked to.

If a V22 wants to tank up the Marine Corp C130J are far better suited for the job.