Turbinia: these corvettes are quite well armed, they have a 76mm gun, are fitted for Exocet SSMs, and certainly were supposed to be armed with the RIM-116 RAM, so basically, they are quite well equipped. The problem is that there is little visible difference between a large OPV and a light frigate/corvette, but there is a very major difference in reality – an OPV is fitted with little in the way of sensors, and very little armament, other than a gun. In contrast, a light frigate like the Kedah class, is fitted with radars, guns and missiles – they carry half the armament of a large frigate, i.e. either ASuW or ASW, not normally both simultaneously.

They make a lot of sense for some nations, since they are often a lot cheaper than a large frigate, and since they are simpler, can often be built in domestic shipyards, where a more complex vessel would need to be built elsewhere.

Fed: if you are contemplating the switch to digital, then I would recommend you make a first step, a while back I invested in a Fuji, and I was very satisfied. It was not one of the fancy digital SLR one, just a regular one (a very good one though), just 6MP, but all my photos came out real well. Best bit is that you can just keep taking photos, trying to the right shot – last time I used it, I would take four or five shots of everything rather than one or two, and when I get home, just pick the best one. A good first step into the digital realm though!

I am surprised to hear Ja speaking so positively of the Miracles, they certainly were not well liked by many in Oz. The French blocked their use on operations in Vietnam, and threatened to cut off spares supplies if they were deployed. That does not make for a great bargain (buying 116 aircraft, but not being allowed to actually use them as desired not making them very useful). Certainly the impression I have received was that they were not well liked – they were reasonably capable, but there were always rumours of problems with the Atar engines (not an uncommon problem, only really fixed in the later versions of the M53 engine apparently).

Much obliged Tin, that was actually the picture I had seen (on that very thread no less), and I would still venture to say it looks like an early Goalkeeper.

As for the Chinese Type 730, I would actually guess that it uses the GAU-8 ammunition – the whole things smacks of a little ‘creative design acquisition’… I think what WisePanda was meaning by ‘is there any french links to the Type 730 ciws’ was whether the Type 730 technology was acquired from France. I suspect the Chinese obtained the technology from a variety of countries – probably obtained the cannon design from France (easier when they are closing down a project using the design, thus disposing of documents), mount design from the Dutch (or Goalkeeper customer), and the systems integration from Russia…

Tinwing: have you got a picture of the Samos/Satan, the only picture of it I have seen could well have been of an early Goalkeeper, just mislabelled, if not, it seemed very similar.

As for separation of gun and sensor, that is exactly how the Millenium gun works – it only weighs in at about 3.5tons, despite being a 35mm gun, largely due to having offboard sensors. I think the suggestion was that you could fit future combattants with one or two fire control radars in total, to control multiple RAM and Millenium gun systems.

There will probably be an air wing, not an air force, it will probably consist of a handful of donated Hueys, and perhaps the odd Antonov An-2, but not much more. If air defence capability were really needed, then they might just ask someone to park a Hawk battery on the territory, not much more.

Flex: Slovakia is a very nice place, I was there only a year or so after the split, in the middle of a heatwave, and it still seemed a nice place!

Well, all I can say is ‘oops!’ – this is quite embarassing, but to be honest, it is one of those things that happens from time to time!