SintraMinisters should be there EXACTLY to prevent this kind of utter bull. The Tornado is a better plane than the Harrier, but considering that:
Tornado in the end only have the RAPTOR and Storm Shadow as unique features that the Harrier GR9 doesn’t have;
Harrier is a bit less performant but does the job required AND is the only carrier capable aircraft left;
I think it is evident what choice should be made between the two.
Evidently, ministers miss the point and believe too much to RAF’s officers cries.
Sweet Jesus
The Tornado besides the RAPTOR, CASOM, brings the ALARM2, a pair of 27 mm mauser guns , 2X time the range, 2X the warload, two engines and two pair of eyes.
The RAF Harrier is as one trick pony, thats V/STOL, besides that its an AMX without the radar and guns.
The Harrier doesnt do the “job”, unless the Job is short range CAS, because interdiction, counter air, long range precision strike, etc, it doesnt do.
If the plan to save three sqns of harriers was to axe seven sqns of Tornados without replacing them for absolutely nothing, then obviously there are some sensible people in the RAF and in the MOD.
SintraThe 2010 NAO report was just released, four things stand out:
1 – The budget for the JCA program (thats the JSF also known has “Dave”) was slashed by almost 500 million pounds
2 – The official requirement for the Typhoon is 160 units
3 – The IOC for the Nimrod was delayed
4 – The budget for the CVF went up by almost 1,5 billion pounds
Cheers
SintraThey aren’t talking about binning the whole fleet the day after the SDSR, it is a suggested draw down over the next 5 years, they couldn’t just chuck them even if they wanted to, as they are currently on deployment in Afghanistan.
Nice, so i will rephrase, in five years “the entire RAF will be composed of four sqn´s of Typhoons, barely enough for the QRA mission, and three sqns of a VERY short ranged light bomber. Just Grand, the RAF will be 1/6 of what it was in 1991 AFTER “options for change”!!!!”
Or putting in another way, in five years, half of RAF combat fleet will be slashed without replacement.
SintraHighly interesting
So, the RAF looses half of its already small Fast jet fleet in the form of SEVEN sqns of Tornados and everyone thinks “fine we still have the carriers and a handfull of Daves”?
If this Tornado scrapping goes ahead in the short term, for the next five years the entire RAF will be composed of three and a half to four sqn´s of Typhoons, barely enough for the QRA mission, and three sqns of a VERY short ranged light bomber. Just Grand, the RAF will be 1/6 of what it was in 1991 AFTER “options for change”!!!!
SintraSaudi Arabia?!
Why Saudi Arabia would order one single erieye?!
They have five E-3 Sentry´s.
SintraHmm probably wouldn’t be the massive international outcry you envisage. China would be annoyed, Russia could go either way. Japan, South Korea, probably most of Europe wouldn’t be too bothered or would openly support it.
And lets remember that the only nuclear weapons that North Korea can detonate would be on their own soil. They’d also be a top priority target – B2’s, Tomahawks, and a lot of US marines would be tasked onto capturing and/or destroying the nuclear sites and weapons.
Sweet Jesus
Decapitating the entire leadership of a soberan country with a surprise attack, would have the suport of most of Europe?!
Japan and South Korea wouldnt be too bothered!
You are aware that the Capital of South Korea, Seoul, is right next to the border and is in range of roughly 6000 North Korean artilary tubes?
Not to mention nuclear weapons…
SintraHmm probably wouldn’t be the massive international outcry you envisage. China would be annoyed, Russia could go either way. Japan, South Korea, probably most of Europe wouldn’t be too bothered or would openly support it.
And lets remember that the only nuclear weapons that North Korea can detonate would be on their own soil. They’d also be a top priority target – B2’s, Tomahawks, and a lot of US marines would be tasked onto capturing and/or destroying the nuclear sites and weapons.
Sweet Jesus
Decapitating the entire leadership of a soberan country with a surprise attack, would have the suport of most of Europe?!
Japan and South Korea wouldnt be too bothered!
You are aware that the Capital of South Korea, Seoul, is right next to the border and is in range of roughly 6000 North Korean artilary tubes?
Not to mention nuclear weapons…
SintraAs I’ve already said, when Foudre was offered to Argentina, the Argentineans preferred to discuss French assistance in building new amphibious ships in Argentina. Portugal hasn’t expressed any interest in a dedicated amphibious ship, but has planned for years to buy a new transport/supply ship with limited amphibious capability. Foudre wouldn’t meet that requirement.
Swerve
The Portuguese Navy requirement for the “Navio Polivalente logistico” is for a 10500 tons classic LPD with a complement of 150 officers and enlisted personel capable of carrying 495 marines for 30 days, equiped with four heavy (EH101) helicopters and six landing crafts.
The TCD Foudre is awfully close to the specifications for the NPL.
http://ema.marinha.pt/PT/actividade/programas/Documents/Navio_Polivalente_Log%C3%ADstico.pdf
SintraThe Marina Militare site only says Sylver A43 & Aster 15.
Is that the ASW model only?
I havent been tracking the program for more than a year and a half, but the four ASW ships were suposed to receive two eight cells Sylver 43 launchers and the SAAM IT combat system, but the six GP´s were going to receive four eight cells Sylver 50´s and the SAAM-ESD!
SintraI agree that Type 26 is probably too late to replace the frigates (the oldest will be over 40 years old before a T26 could be in the water), & I’ll be surprised if the Italians don’t get the contract, but there’s no need to exaggerate. The Inhauma corvettes are between 16 & 21 years old, so replacement shouldn’t be so urgent that contract signature can’t wait a while. The frigates are more urgent, & I agree, they certainly can’t wait ten years to start replacing them, but who said ten years?
I think BAe’s best hope of selling Brazil some T26 is probably as a follow-on to the FREMMs, if the Brazilian navy has the budget for expansion, & can be convinced that a newer design is a better option for additional ships than more of the same.
If one looks at the current Brazilian fleet, & the ships on offer, one thing strikes me immediately: no area air defence weapons. FREMM would go some way to correcting that, as Aster 15 has enough range to provide limited area air defence, but it is still limited. Are there any plans to procure AAW ships? Perhaps FREDA?
Swerve
One of the reasons why the Italians are an inch of capturing a major naval order in Brasil is that the Carlo Bergamini class is indeed a very, very respectable AAW “frigate”.
The italian FREEM´s by comparison with the french ones are heavily armed, they match the EMPAR radar (on top of a very high pedestal) with 32 Sylver 50 sylos and the ASTER 30.
Cheers
SintraHere is a possible scenario for you:
Delete most or all Tornado.
Delete Joint Harrier Force and disband it.
Lease to Buy about 50 Super Hornet and go CATOBAR on one Carrier, to start with.
MoD saves many billions to help bridge its Financial Black Hole.
RN gets its FAA back under full control.
Impossible? Maybe not, there are certainly rumours MoD is interested in a Lease to Buy deal on Super Hornet.
Right, and the entire RAF fast jet fleet would amount to 5 sqn´s of Typhoon´s…
80 front line fast jets, that and snowing in Ougadougou.
SintraLooks like Pepe ran away and hide when questioned on that FAB papers, and it could be that he dreamed up the whole theory all by himself.
However, if there is actually any FAB papers that state the above, then whoever signed those papers has some serious explanation to do, probably in court.
Take note how FULL LOAD is highlighted, and understand that an F-35 loaded up with bombs externally will not get anywhere near this klingon grade kloaking over F-18E, more likely it will have around 50%.So: any chance the source can be reviled ?
While those numbers clearly belong to the “Pixie Dust/Klingon device” fantasy land, i am sure that Pepe didnt dreamed them, there are severall possible explanations.
1 – Someone at FAB made a huge blunder –
Too far fetched, those reports are made by expert teams, and reviewed by quite a handfull of people before being delivered. Someone who let it pass such a nonsense would have is b…ls in a lathe.
2 – ITAR restrictions, more precisely the radar blockers –
The radar blockers in the SH are restricted by ITAR regulations, if (mighty big if) Boeing had proposed the SH without those (or with a very downgraded version) then the the Hornet frontal RCS would grow by a fair margin.
Far fetched…
3 – Mis-interpretation –
Portuguese is a tricky language!
Lets see two simple phrases, one, the “RCS of the SH in certain configurations is 100% bigger than the RCS of the Rafale”, and two, the “RCS of the SH in certain configurations is 100X bigger than the RCS of the Rafale”.
Two very similar sentences with vastly diferent meanings. A 100% increase in RCS means a 2X increase, in real world its irrelevant, if everything else is equal the detection range for a 2X RCS amounts to a handfull of km´s, on the other hand if we are talking of a 100X increase thats a huge diference.
4 – Direct political interference on a technical report –
It wouldnt be the first time that a FAB technical evaluation team received direct orders from the Government to change technical reports (including things like speed, range, etc) to suit the political “winds” of the time.
No, i dont mean the FX2 competition and i dont mean the FX1 contest.
For more information see here, its well worth the time that it takes to read it (its in Portuguese, use a translation tool): http://www.aereo.jor.br/tag/mirage-iii/
Cheers
SintraOnly a few people go the extra mile to integrate non-U.S. weapons on U.S. aircraft. And from the top of my head I can’t come up with anyone but Japan and Israel who integrated a non-OEM radar AAM on a fighter. It’s a pity MICA didn’t go on the EF2k, it seems a very capable real-world AAM (where visual ID is still standard procedure).
IRIS T
SintraI had no idea that the LCA had ever been considered by the UK do you have any tips where I might look to find out more? .
The HAL LCA was never considered for front line service with the RAF.
A long, long time ago (thirty years ago) a single engine delta canard in the 6/7 tons clean weight was considered, it was called the P106/106B, there were some talks with Sweden on that subject, but the project never left the drawing board.
A bit more here:
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49388
Cheers
SintraHe says that fast jets are best for COIN operations, but that’s contradicted by the fact that the A-10 is said to be by far the most popular and successful ground support aircraft in Afghanistan.
I´ve read severall recent articles stating one of the most popular/sought/whatever COIN “fast jet” is the Strike Eagle, persistence and a huge weapon load (normally in one single sortie it carries severall diferent munitions wich is a bonus, it adds flexibility) make it a very popular combat aircraft with the ground troops.
Cheers
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