I have noticed that the Japanese seem to put a lot of effort into anti ship defence from their aircraft. I don’t know of the exact reason why they would put so much more effort than any other nation with a coast line. Maybe something to do with there constitution as it is defensive they didn’t have to develop items that other countries have. Is the chance of ship attack so much more great in japan then anywhere else?

I do like the Japanese weaponry i think it will be very effective if it ever gets used. I would be good to get some other weapons tech and input for future programs collaborations with say UK or Australia or Europe. I think the Japanese have a few aces up there sleeve that if they has to use we would be impressed by.

The F-1 Jaguar is an interesting comparison but they do have different missions. The F-1 is Anti Ship and the Jaguar is Low level bomber for land use. I’ve always liked the Jag but maybe the F-1 gets it with its Radar. If i’m heading for ships in the pacific i’d take the F-1, If going on a bomb run across Europe take the Jag.

Has anyone changed their mind about if Iraqi navy would be ready for these ships in say 1 year if they started training now? I think they would be good for the Iraq navy and they aren’t a bunch of idiots with the correct training they could operate these ships fine. I feel they are perfect to be Iraq’s top end fleet just now until they get bigger and better.

I read this on http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/nakhoda/

A settlement was reached in June 2007 and Brunei accepted delivery of the vessels. However, the Royal Brunei Navy has no plans to commission the ships. Ownership remains with Brunei.

The vessels are berthed at the James Fisher yard in Barrow and BAE Systems has a contract to maintain the ships. They are to be sold with Lurssen as the selling agent.

It looks very unlikely that the RN would take them on as no doubt Brunei would charge us a fortune. I could see them being good for caribbean and Middle east tours. I did consider Falkland’s island protection ship but not sure how they would fare down there. Could it share the Role with HMS Clyde but also do some South Atlantic patrols aswell. You would need 2 to keep a constant presence. Any thoughts?

It seems such a waste to just leave these ships to rust. In the past the RN would take these ships on without any thoughts at all. They seem perfect and even if the Bunks have to be lengthened it want cost that much. We could also just send small sailors to be on these ships. There is bound to be 76 small sailors out of 40,000!

I think this will be good for Australia and hopefully we can get some meets between RAF and RAAF to have comparisons and to play with each other.

Maybe the RAF have done it with the US Navy already but i’ve not heard anything on this.

I guess as they are to replace the F111 there main role will be ground attack. The Aussies must feel that this plane is a big improvement on the F111 and i hope it serves them well. I don’t think once the F35 arrives in OZ it will replace the SuperHornet i think they will run the 2 together. I wounder what advantages the superhornet will have over the F35 when it arrives in service for the role the RAAF. Maybe better weapons integration/availability. I think the F35 would have to carry things like Harpoon on a hardpoint anyway so that’s the stealth gone. I am also not sure if Anti Ship Missiles and US navy weapons will be available for the F35A if US airforce doesn’t use them? maybe the F35 A B and C will all have the same weapons available by using the same computer or something?

I think this is a good buy for the RAAF and it will fit in nicely to there airforce. Also i wouldn’t they have any neighbouring country that could seriously attack them that they could not fight off with FA-18’s and SuperHornets.

Does anyone know what Weapons package the RAAF have bought for the superHornets.

Also are there any weapons the SuperHornet can use that the FA-18 can’t?

All in All i think a good buy for the RAAF and should really push up the availability over the F111.

I think there will always be human in the Loop somewhere. But if you could have aircraft that can avoid SAM’s and other missiles by pulling extremely high G’s or maneuvers that would kill a pilot in the cockpit then that’s a good thing. I think we will also have long range high endurance aircraft that can stay up for day’s or weeks. I

What i imagine it will come down to will be: Is it worth taking the pilot out of the cockpit for each mission. Easy bombing missions like what predator does just now are fine. But you ask the troops and i bet they are glad they can have a manned aircraft fly low level over the enemy maybe fire the cannon a little to get the targets to surrender. It worked in Iraq.

If going into a high threat environment where a UCAV could go in bomb the target and get out pulling maneuvers that would kill a pilot then that what’s needed. But the technology to make aircraft do that will need to be invented first

We will not see UAV’s take over all roles in the next 100 years anyway.

I think it will depend on the mission but there will always be a human in the loop somewhere. I don’t think we will ever get the stage where you tell the computer wipe out a country or taliban for example and then all aircraft start charging out of hangers loading what arm’s they like and picking there own targets and taking off into the sunset.

Mind you Artificial intelligence is a interesting topic and who knows what it could do once you teach it how to learn. imagine something taking all the information on the Internet and making up its own mind as to what to do with it. Scary Stuff.

Personally i really hope we get the CVF’s. Then we can get back to building the forces. I would suggest a defence review if a thought it would do any good. What i think the UK needs is to be based on an Expeditionary Force and that way in the extremely unlikely event the viking’s come to invade in long boats we have the equipment to fight but also have the capability to fight on foreign shores. A base in Middle east would be very helpful for a start. even France has a few around the world. Where do we have 1? Oh yeah The Falklands.

I read this in the telegraph today Around £10 billion has been spent on equipment since 2006 of which £1 billion has been spent on armoured vehicles.

I wonder how much of this has been Urgent operational requirements funded by the Treasury and how much was planned for the defence budget. This could help to explain the billions of pounds black hole in the MOD budget.

What is wrong with the UK parliament that they can’t understand if you want to fight wars and act like a big boy in the world you need to back it up with forces and equipment and cash. I’m happy to spend an extra bit of tax if i knew it was going to a good cause and wouldn’t be pissed up the wall!!

Rant over i got so frustrated.