FedaykinThe report about the Puma OSD is incorrect – a contract has been let within the last two months for study into the possibilty of upgrading the Puma to HC2 standard – this’d involve fitting Makila engines and various other bits and pieces. This would extend service life until approx 2020.
Yep…good old BBC! Fast with the news but not always correct with the facts!
Thanks DJJ I remember that was the case now…;)
FedaykinIf thats what you want to do.;) 🙂
Hah..:D Life is to short…(as I take another sip of my Carlsberg Export lager):dev2:
FedaykinThere is no debate, the procurement of SM-3 would not cause China to go to war- period. Frankly it is an absurd suggestion.
The PAC-3’s were procured for BMD defense, and they offer the capability to greatly reduce the impact of a Chinese ballistic missile strike, thus aiding the preservation of the Taiwanese armed forces and civilian infrastructure, and the addition of SM-3 would further enhance that. It would be far from wasted VLS cells.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/03/21/2003247172
Well I think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one:D
FedaykinThe US has already sold Taiwan PAC-3. SM-3 would certainly not ‘push china over the edge’. The only thing that would do that is a Taiwanese declaration of independence.
I don’t think the PAC-3 are intended for the ABM role, whats the point? China can field far more intermediate missiles then PAC-3 can deal with and the same goes for SM-3. Little point in filling the missile silos of any destroyer with them when they won’t make a realistic dent in China’s missile stocks but most certainly antagonise them.
It is debateable if it would push the Peoples Republic to war but they certainly have been more vocal and aggresive over Taiwans arms procurement programs, whats the point of trying to purchase a system which will have little value in a practical millitary sense but will certainly ratchet up tension in the area.
The truth is Taiwans armed forces is no longer a match for the PLA/PLAAF/PLAN/PLANAF (any more please do add), its role is to delay the peoples republic long enough to allow America to intervene.
FedaykinSad Sad news.
It was on the BBC report tonight, it certainly brings the issue of helicopters (or lack of them) to sharp relief. The really sad thing is if the then Tory government (hey its not just Labour who can make bad millitary procurement decisions) had decided to purchase the Westland Sikorsky Blackhawk and retired the Puma as intended in the mid 90’s we wouldn’t be in this situation now.
What surprised me about the report was when they said the Puma will be retired in three years anyway, a rather surprising statement as there appears to be no clear replacement at the moment and they are fully tasked (my choice would be the new aw149 which Augusta Westland intends to build in the UK anyway).
FedaykinSource, SM-3 seems to have done pretty well thus far. Maybe you could explain how the capability would be limited, this is exactly the role SM-3 was designed for.
Reading through some of the threads here it seems that Chinese Ballistic Missiles, at least in their latest forms are accurate and there is realy no way of knowing whether you are shooting down accurate or inaccurate ones.
Aside from it being unlikely that America would release SM-3 to Taiwan for various reasons any ABM system procurement would be a fruitless exercise. Firstly there is a good chance it would push the Peoples Republic over the edge and push them towards taking millitary action and at a practical level China already fields more missiles then any ABM system could deal with in a saturation attack (and can easily make more) making an ABM investment by Taiwan rather pointless.
FedaykinWhen the decision to go with Aegis was taken CEAFAR was at a very early stage and high risk. Still is, but this and potential larger offshoots looking very promising. All in all, emergence of CEA has some established competitors scratching their heads a little.
Questionable though whether relations with 3rd largest (potentially free-)trade partner and big customer of australia’s mining industry would be put at stake for sale of radars or modern diesel-electric boats like Collins.
Pred has hit the real problem on the head! Its quite unlikely Australia would risk its trade with China to sell weapon systems to Taiwan. This is not a unique problem, outside of America Taiwan is now finding it very difficult to find countries that are prepared to sell it arms. The problem is particularly acute when it comes to purchasing some new diesel subs, the USN is not keen on an American yard making Diesel subs for historic and political reasons but it is proving difficult to find another country prepared to do the task.
FedaykinA decent article, but dated because the meat of it seems to be based on info no later then 2005, with only a sprinkling of more recent events that seemed to have been largely ignored when drawing the conclusions.
Like the majority of western publications, it is also fixated on the Russian weaponry and all but ignores Chinese weapons at a time when the PLA is favoring locally produced kit more and more over the Russian ones.
Its a good summery of the past, but is still 2 or 3 years behind the curve of what is actually happening.
Your right there plawolf, always this fixation with the Russian weapon systems in PLA service whilst ignoring the amazing progress in local arms production. Some millitary publications are just as guilty of this as civilian ones!:(
FedaykinNowhere near as good as those with China. You’d have a better chance of the S Koreans selling the KDX-III to the PRC then you would Taiwan.
If Taiwan does get those Aegis DDGs and also get their new subs sometime within our lifetimes, then they would have all the assets needed to support a carrier or two. Get some F35Bs or Cs and a couple of decent sized carriers and they could have some moving airfields out in the pacific that the PLA would be hard pressed to hit conventionally.
But with all the rumors of a PLA AShBM programme, that might not be as attractive an option as if would have been a few months ago.
Put simply Taiwan has asked for AEGIS destroyers before and the US has said NO! then gave them Kidd class destroyers instead.
There is no way the Taiwan would go down the line of carrier aviation, I doubt the America would sell them carrier capable aircraft and no one would probably sell them a carrier for that matter for fear of antagonising China.
Also I don’t think the parliment in Taipei would fund such a purchase for fear of antagonising China.
FedaykinJust want to add my name to list of the unsurprised. This is what happens when you buy a 20 year old carrier that ha spent half its life tied up and rusting in one of the harshest environments in the world under the supervision of notoriously corrupt authorities then decide to give it a complete reconstruction. The irony is that China may have its larger and potentially more capable rusting ex soviet hulk in service before India’s is up and running.:(
Yeah you hit the nail on the head there Sealord, the Varyag is an interesting point as well. By the looks of it going on recent developments the Varyag will probably be used for training.
FedaykinI’m with Ja on this one no real surprise to anyone (except I might not be so harsh about the quality of all Russian equipment;) ), the best they can do is make use of the time and carry on the induction of the Mig29K. They might even take the chance to do some cross decking on the Kuznetsov as long as she isn’t sitting in dry dock (again! – she seems to be forever being repaired).
The ADS is very interesting to me as I have said before, after Cochin has finished building carriers for the Indian navy it might well be a very attractive design for other navies. Off the top of my head it might be just the solution for the Brazillian navy once the Sao Paulo runs out of life. The design adapted with catapaults would be just the job for them maybe they could come to a deal with Argentina to share the building costs of one carrier or even two with one for each navy to a common fit.
FedaykinWhen the NASA WB-57F visited Mildenhall a year or two ago, I spoke to their programme people, who said that they had “more than five” further airframes that could be refurbed and brought back into service.
The structural problem to which you refer was solved on the F, but not on the D.
All very well but are those airframes available, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are being held back for NASA.
I still think a busjet airframe that has good altitude performance is the best choice. The Global express has a max altitude performance of 51000ft and a cruise altitude of 43000ft, not PR9 performance (but not by much) but more than good enoguh for the role.
As for the global hawk SENS you are right it is an amazing platform and it can perform roles that until recently only manned platforms could do, if money was no object I would love to see it in the RAF inventory. The thing is manned high altitude recon has been shown to be very useful, the American still do it with their U2 and the PR9 was tasked right to the end of service (actually that end of service date was moved because they needed it in Afghanistan). Whilst the RAF does have the RAPTOR pod for the Tornado that airframe doesn’t have the altitude performance or endurance for the role we are talking about. The RAPTOR pod and Tornado combination is for tactical battlefield recon, ie streak over the battlefield at low to medium altitude taking fairly random pictures. We need something with a man in the loop to sit at high altitude and decide what it wants to image.
FedaykinIn the case of the F35 the choice of HMSS will be interesting when comes to the UK. I can easily see the UK going for a Bae Systems Typhoon derived helmet for the F35 rather than the American choice.
FedaykinI did post a picture of the Tu204 airline cockpit a while back and it was also in that funny turquoise colour so it does get around a bit.
FedaykinWell the question is how much would a factory fresh Global Express cost with empty equipment racks and ventral canoe?
They would fit into the currant logistics chain for the ASTOR and some of the systems would come from the retired PR9.
With the RB57 your having to re-life old airframes and introduce a new logistics chain for a unique type.
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