I thought they were talking about replacing the ferry with a land link? Mind you, they have been talking about putting in rail link with Pearson for a while too, and there is the issue of the police helicopters (I think it was Dominion who were offering to buy them for the PD, but the city said no…).

It was not photoshopped, it happened in 1990 on joint exercises. Two B-52s asked the carrier if they could do a flyby, and it was allowed. On approach, the B-52s said they were 9km out, but the carrier could not see them, so they told the guys on the carrier to look down, but they struggled to see it visually. The B-52 was hugging the ground (well, water), and flew below flight deck level. They asked for a repeat, and this time, the sailors had cameras ready.

Swerve – I agree about the prospect of an A-300MRTT, worth looking at. I was using the 15-20 year figure as a conservative estimate, in reality it would be around 15-20 years before their replacement becomes a priority (i.e. they would probably continue for another ten years after that timeframe).

As for the A-400M, I agree that it is far from ideal, but a CFM-56 engined An-77 would at least be up to speed, so to speak. The problem with the A-400M is really that it is neither the big tanker nor the small tactical refueller, capable of refuelling helicopters (the A-400M is not as capable of refuelling helos as the KC-130).

How about a fleet of either (a) or (b)?

(a)
20-30 x A-310 MRTT
40 x A-400M with tanker capability

(b)
80 x An-77 (with CFM-56 engines)

Nice!

The Tristar should be in service for a good while yet – they are being used heavily, but there are more airframes available if the government actually went and bought them! Marshalls of Cambridge offered to convert all the current Tristars to three point tankers, and add another nine or so aircraft to the fleet. This was, unfortunately given no real attention by the government, since they seemed obsessed with signing the disastrous deal with EADS, whereby the RAF tanker fleet will be reduced to just nine A-330MRTTs, with a further five available when really needed, though the RAF will probably have to buy time on them (since it means taking them out of passenger service).

As for the VC-10, I still think the best bet would be to buy a large number of used A-310s, and have them all converted – a fleet of ~20-30 A-310s and ~10 Tristars would be far better than ~10 A-330s!

And finally, the Jaguar – great aircraft, and very well suited to deployed operations, it would probably have been ideal for the UK forces in Afghanistan, though the lack of thrust might limit payload. Basically a good aircraft, though I still feel the UK would have been better served by Jaguar being cancelled (the French probably wanting Mirage F-1s instead), and the UK buying into the F-16 deal of the century, preferably for 150-250 Vipers!

From what I hear, Boeing production is running ahead of schedule, so Canada and Australia may be able to get them very quickly (the RAAF seems to be talking end of ’06 for their first aircraft, with two in ’07 and the last one in ’08 if memory serves).

As for the C-130s, I think it makes a lot of sense – a balance of high and low capability is needed, and buying A-400Ms would have been too expensive and would not fill either the high or low requirement.

I would not be surprised to see the attack helos being ARH-70s – a good level of capability, without spending too much (an Apache could be argued to be overkill, and could not be ordered in large numbers). It is certainly looking good, with C-17s, C-130s, CH-47s and other kit – once they are finished re-equipping the Canadian forces, they can come over to the UK and inject some sanity into defence procurement here!

Swerve: I agree, attacks on transportation were highly effective, but I was taking bombing to mean only bombing (i.e. bombers dropping freefall bombs), not the rocket attacks. Attacks on trains and other transport targets mostly consisted of fighters (Typhoons and P-47s in particular) strafing with guns and rockets. Before tactical fighters could move in, fast light bombers like the Mosquito had a lot of luck dealing with such targets, again using rockets. In terms of bombing though, the oil targets were really the best example of bombers doing their job!