What there capability is now is hardly worth talking about 30 old F-16 in need of upgrade with a daily duty of around 20 jets. with the Gripen 14 jet plan each of the 3 units would have 2 jets in deep maintenance and 2 jets in line maintenance leaving 10 jets for duty the OCU with 8 jet would have have a 1 & 1 plan leaving 6 jets for duty so

36 jets on duty daily
7 jets in line maintenance able to come back on line within 24 hrs
7 jets in deep maintenance or upgrade

this would give Denmark real ability to deploy jets and still carry out daily dutys

When we all talk BVR we are missing one point. When F-35 goes nose hot to pick up a target it to becomes a target and once in WVR its going to be in trouble against SU30 SU35 Typhoon F15 Gripen NG. F35s strength is strike using stealth to get into the target and back out and if it can SC on the way out all the better and if can’t and it finds its self up against Mirage F1-JF17 or Mig 23/29 fight on. But F35 B/C don’t have an internal gun so we need to speed tape one on (oh how history will love that one) because any fighter pilot once the missiles have gone wants something left. So all in all if it gets seen by a good air superiority fighter on CAP its going to need top cover just like any 4th gen platform

I would start with

Fighters 35 F-18 30 C’s & 5 D’s Over hauled from the US
24 Gripen 20 C’s & 4 D’s Over hauled from Sweden

Transport 4 BAE 146-300QC Over hauled from the UK
2 C-130E Over hauled from the US

Helicopters 20 Lyxn AH9 Over hauled from the UK
4 Chinook CH47D

Trainers 10 F-5F 11 Over hauled from the US

AWE 4 Hawkeye E-2C

All basic & multi training would be out sourced to cut cost. The F5 fleet would also be used for point defence and ground attack

With aircraft sales come better development opportunities. Gripen NG will become a good multi mission platform and in numbers a hand fall also once the beyond visual range contest is over and your into the knife fight its down to tactics history has proven the best plane does not always win on the day. And as said if 25 Gripen NG’s turned up on your door step with the support of a 200+ battle group its going to open your eyes no matter what you operate

Also the very hypothetical Gripen battle group would be a part of NATO and have the support of other platforms as for Norway’s weapons development and sales as part of the Nordic Gripen group there are opportunities to make weapons for Gripen and Typhoon.

F-35 we will have wait and see just how good it will be at this time its has not seen any real 1 on 1 combat testing and has only just started weapons testing there is no doubt it is going to be good but how good ?

Also anyone wanting of out F-35 now will have to take the hit.

Having looked at this from page 1 it started with Denmark and a number of Nordic states looking at other fighter type due to the price and time delays of F-35. Some key points have been made and heads have been put in the sand. Combined deployment has two aims bringing power to the task but also and sometimes more importantly flags to the table behind a common effort. The first key point came from Seahawk post 12 numbers are important no matter how good they are having only 12 jets is pissing in the wind so maybe what the Nordic states need to think about is Norway Denmark Finland and the Netherlands all buying Gripen NG from Sweden and forming a one type Nordic battle group by ordering in large numbers it will drop the price of Gripen. By deploying just 5 jets each this battle group could bring a lot of power to the table from the Nordic states . Plus in 2025 or 2030 as a group they could look at F-35 or SAAB 5th gen platform

How boring will it be when we all have F-35 :rolleyes:

I have to say if we change the way we do business and take out deep blue water C-295 could become a player however we do have to take into account that its not just UK waters we need to think about its also deloyments out side the UK such as the Falklands. Also C-295 comes from a transport back ground and know 295 has better seats for the operators but having spent 6 hours in a C-130J in Aug I would feel sad for guys having to man 295 for up to 8 hours. Now as for Poseidon getting cheaper you are right with numbers costs come down But one big problem any fall in cost would be wiped out by the fact we are British and could not just buy it off the self with out playing with it which would push the cost back up and this I feel will be the same for C-295 so you and I know deep down off the self is never quite that with us Brits

Don’t ask where I got this…… 😉

Capability affordability and availability are the key questions when looking at UK MPA/ASW. Firstly we need to fill the gap left by Nimrod MRA4 not entering service. What the UK brings in to service will need to go on until 2040. At this time C130J is off the table due to the fleet being stretched to the limit plus the UK C130J out of service date being 2025. The UAV has at this time got a few holes in their capability which if pushed could be sorted but the biggest problem is one of trust which the armed Reaper ops are going a long way in sorting out. So moving forward at this time the BAE 146-300 offers the best affordability and availability with the capability to be fitted out with MRA4 systems. This package could come together quickly at low cost per unit in military terms. As things stand the only MAP aircraft in the UK is the Sea King ASaC7 which has proved to be a very capable platform in the MPA- AEWaC and ISTAR roles MRA4 was to have more capable so if we were to fit out 146-300 with this system the UK would have a very good long range MAP. Plus the option to use it for limited ISTAR & AWEaC dutys.

Don’t ask where I got this…… 😉

When did you get this