What really gives me the itirates is the way the government sell the planes at prices depending on pollitical favour at the time, Thus the hawk is more expencive than the ALCA simply because of Englands little gitters with the IRA which is technically no longer a problem.

Sorry Ja I don’t understand. The IAC won’t buy because of either political or financial reasons I can’t see BAES or the British government charging Eire anymore for these jets than anybody else. Sounds like a bit of prejudice to me, where did you get this information? I know that the British and the Irish governments don’t get along too well but the people themselves have a lot in common both socially and relatively and they don’t usually let the governmental differences get in the way.

Every time somebody starts talking about British/Irish relations they are usually way off base. 🙂

I don’t think that will happen. First of all we haven’t annoyed anyone in the region enough to warrant an attack. And second, the only countries in the world able to mount such a raid would be Britain and the US, the Russians and possibly France. Of course I mean get here in an invasion strength capacity. First of all of those countries… which do you think could be stopped by Sidewinder armed Skyhawks and maccis? Second which would even want to fight so far away from home against us… the British failed to defeat the Maori in combat 150 years ago… I doubt anyone would do any better today.

By dent of association is very often enough to make you a target. Maybe not now or in the next ten years or even yours or my lifetime but a predominantly ‘British/European’ people in charge in a south asian country is going to get somebody’s hackles up at some point in time especially if some Pacific Rim countries get the power base they have been after for………..how long? If the Japanese had won in WW2 how long would it have been before they were rounding up whites in downtown Ohakea for deportation to concentration camps or ghettos? With the aid of local Maoris? Totally hypothetical but who is to say it one day might happen anyway if India or China really become world players? Don’t tell me that 4 million Kiwis won’t be able to defend the country from a determined attack, not after telling us that the Maoris roundly defeated the British. All that would be needed is time enough to rearm.

Alman Brothers Band. (I think they did the ‘Top Gear’ theme music.)

A more fascinating aspect is, that the British military has its doctrines dictated by the industry (question of larger number of smaller planes vs. smaller number of larger planes). That decision runs contrary the US doctrines. But I wrote about that a month ago already.

Its all down to resources then. If we could afford a reasonable number of larger aircraft I reckon we would go for it but seeing as the numbers would probably be relatively insignificant (eg 60 F22 type aircraft instead of 100+ Tyhoon/Rafale types) the F22 might or might not be a cracking aeroplane but it can’t be in two places at once.

I also think it is ironic that the decisions that the general media slam are the ones that we in the ‘comunity’ tend to debate in a more positive light. They say we should have gone for one deal and we disagree. If you remember what the general media thinks about the Typhoon and compare it to what we here think (in the main at least) you might see what I mean. Sorry I’m not explaining myself too well.

It simply shows how little the general media understand the subject. Its a bit like getting a Maths teacher to stand in for a Physics teacher at school. Very often news papers have a ‘jack of many trades’ correspondent. I.e. a reporter who wears many hats like, defence, politics and education but only knows a good amount about ‘one’ of the subjects he is responsible for. If this reporter had know anything about the relationship between BAe and Airbus, he wouldn’t have used words like “the government is set to deal a savage blow to BAE Systems” because they would know it was patently not true. Airbus is an integral part of the BAe portfolio. :rolleyes:

Picture?

Soon. The digital camera was playing up :rolleyes: so we had to use a wet film camera. As soon as I get them scanned in I will post them.

Hey, that’s great news Phil! Congratulations to you and your family. Is this your first?

My wife’s first, my second, both are girls.:confused: 😮 🙂

but typhoon is a target, as NH90 and Tiger, they not comfirmed they will securise these contracts!

Well thought out GHT. 🙂

If I may help you a little with your English:

Instead of ‘securise’ use ‘secure’.

Instead of ‘annonce’ use ‘announce’ or ‘announcement’.

Example: “To ‘announce’ something.” Or “The ‘announcement’ has been made.

Instead of ‘politicly’ use politically.

Instead of ‘expansive’ use ‘expensive’.

Hope this helps with your English. Do you fancy teaching me to write in French? 🙂