These stories seem to come out all the time but it’s rarely as bad as what is printed. If you added up what has been printed in the press in the last 12 months the UK would have about minus 200 planes and minus 20 ships. I’m not sure where these stories come from.

A major problem is the UK spends a lot of money on defense. Nearly £40 Billion. This is within the top 10 in the world. only the USA, china, Russia spend more. The problems are the 100,000+ civil staff at the MOD and the terrible way the money is managed. An average salary of £30,000 x 100,000 = 3,000,000,000 £3 Billion! and that is just basic salary. This is where i think the root of the problems lie. There are more Civil servants than soliders! These servants change procurement ideas half way through and drive up costs as well as messing loads of other things up. This is where the cuts have to come from. The civil side i would guess are using upto £15-20 billion of the budget in staff costs, building rent, admin costs, bonuses etc. What other country would have half the defence budget not going on defence! Crazy this is absolute madness.

I saw on the News that 6 Merlin’s have been adapted and are now either on there way to Afghanistan or already deployed. Also a Army or RAF general (i’m not to good with what their titles are) was on the news saying that the 6 merlins are a great boost but more is still needed as currently we can only lift a maximum of 400 men at any one time. Anyone keen on maths can try and figure out how many helos this is and what type they are.
Anyone know what the merlins needed to go to Afghanistan. I would of thought that seeing as who they had been in Iraq they wouldn’t need modification for Afghanistan. same temperature etc but obviously the Afghanistan operation is much harder on the helo’s and they need modified.
There were some Lynx AH9’s out there as well and i think they had the new wild cat engines fitted before going out.
The seakings got new main rotor and tail rotor blades before they went.
Anyone notice just how much of the Royal Navies and armies helo’s seem to be out there compared to the RAF. I would think the RAF have a big responsibility as this is their role to provide the air transport. pretty much parts of every RM helicopter squadron is out there.

I don’t have any pictures but in air force monthly or air combat in I think August issue there was an article on helicopters at bastion and they had some pictures showing chinooks and lynx’s and seakings with loads of defensive aids on them.

There is no secret about the helo’s deployed. It’s just hard to get an exact number. If articles are being published in the press for example the 6 merlins going out then you won’t get in trouble. Is 6 merlins the most the UK can deploy or can more go out there. I think the RAF has 30 odd?

Boring!!!

Argentina isn’t much of a problem now but if it was a country that had a force like argentina had in 82 but made up of modern items any nation would be in trouble and would lose ships. Most navies have no spare capacity and can’t afford to lose even one ship. This is the problem i see in the future.

What’s the UK’s relationship with Algeria like? Will the UK be happy with Algeria getting Sea wolf missiles and probably other equipment that would of been meant for the UK’s friend Brunei. I heard these ships are pretty high tech when built and that’s why Brunei never took them. With Seawolf and other systems now being part of the big European firms can the UK do anything about it if it doesn’t want it’s main missile that arms it’s frigates being sold to Algeria?
I am glad they have benn sold finally they look like good ships. I hope the Algerians are small i’ve heard the ship is set out for shorter Brunei people.

What is the power of the new engines being offered for the Jaguar? There is the Honeywell 125 and the new Adour that Rolls Royce have tested in a retired RAF Jaguar.
The current Jaguar engine is little under powered for the hot and high conditions in some areas of India. personally i would go for the new Adour engine. It has commonality with the Hawk engine and is an upgrade of the current engine used in the Jaguar.
What is the power of the current Indian Jaguar’s? Do they use the same engines as the RAF Jaguar’s? (the Adour 106 i think)
The Jaguar is a fantastic aircraft and the Indian Airforce are making the best of this aircraft if they fit it with a more powerful engine. This will allow the Jaguar to operate at it full potential. Will the Indian Jaguar’s be getting all the upgrades the RAF GR3’s were meant to have. Do the indians use the over-wing pylons? If they do i would get the tech from the British to wire them for ASRAAM which will give them a long range IR missile. The ASRAAM is known for it’s much longer range compared to other IR missiles like sidewinder etc. Alos get the RAF helmets that allowed designation by sight etc and this will be the best tactical bomber in the region. The RAF will be so jealous. lol

What i think would of been great would of been a basic cheap redesign of the Jaguar to give it the ability to carry more fuel and if eurojet2000 was picked to be the engine for LCA to also put this in the Jaguar. The power would have been more than enough and the fuel efficancy would of made the jaguar a fantastic all rounder plane. Or if they are making it to be a medium to low level ground attack use the Tornado’s engines. The Eurofighter’s engine is a great all rounder and will be fantastic for LCA. The engine has the ability to increase power by at least 20% according to the manufacture and can be thrust vectoring as well. This would allow future growth in weight and stores carried by the LCA. This in my opinion is why it is a better pick than the GE414 for LCA. I don’t know if GE414 has been tested with thrust vectoring? I think EJ2000 has already been tested but it is not neccacry for Eurofighter as it is so maneuverable already. Eurofighter for MRCA as well. I just hope Eurofighter take this competition seriously and get the Air to ground stores on the plane asap. If eurofighter was picked for MRCA you would see the manufacturers getting all the weapons fitted and tested before the first one went to India. the Eurofighter is going to be in service with it’s home nations for at least the next 40 years so no need to worry that india will be left with an aircraft that they have to pay for all the upgrades. This will happen with the F16, gripen, F18 superhornet and especially the Mig35. The rafale would probably be ok but then the french will only put on what they won’t and charge an fortune to do anything for anyone else as India has learned from previous dealing’s with the french.

Here is a link to the Rolls Royce website with an article about the upgraded engine
http://www.rolls-royce.com/defence/news/2009/160609_adour_indian_jaguar.jsp
Rolls Royce Adour MK 821 Testing

Snowy Jaguar

I see the power of the Honeywell 125 is going to be 9800lbs full power. I’m strugaling to find the power of the Adour MK 821. I guess it is going to be nearly the same. Anyone have any numbers?
IS there a reason the Honeywell is being condsidered instead of just going for the Adour? Is there more to the deals than just buying engines?

I thought i had heard that the RN had decided to fit the Phalanx on the Type 45 after all? Maybe this was a dream i had.
Maybe at a refit we will see the Type 45 get more VLS cells but i very much doubt it. I very much doubt they will ever fire a missile in anger never mind fire off all there load. you will probably find they never even sail with a full load. Probably 4 Aster 30’s and 2 Aster 15’s. Oh it’s sad so sad.
If they don’t have the Phalanx fitted it looks like the lesson of 1982 has been forgotten again. maybe it will take a couple billion pound type 45’s to hit the bottom before the MOD realise why we bought CIWS in the first place.

Here’s a picture of Aster launching from the cell. Looks like it’s blasted off from hell it self!