F35bAnother 1 gone crashed near loch lomond. Maybe that’s the MOD’s plan with what to do with them.
Any news on the pilot and navigator yet? hopefully they got out ok.
F35bI saw another Chinoock Yesterday flying over edinburgh. Nothing so far today apart from the usual civilian copters.
F35bSea hawk are you being sarcastic? Which aircraft is made from cheap composites that regular failures in civil service?
I wish i could see the request for information and the points scoring the USAF gave that made the KC45 win. Is it available anywhere? How close a race was it between the 2?
F35bI work in the NHS and if you could see the waste here you would be amazed. I imagine it’s the same in any public funded organisation. We had £25,000 the other week go down the pan because someone couldn’t check there spelling in a publication before it went to the printers. It’s all going to recycle heaven now. This ain’t the 1st time either. Take £10 billion out health, education and social security the world wouldn’t end up disaster. Red tape is costing this country so much. It used to take less civil servants to run the whole British Empire from London 100 years ago than work in the MOD today.
Tahat tells you something. Roll on Bonfire of the quangos.
F35bHere’s a question Does anyone know why the KC-135 is called that?
I know the KC-10 is becuase it’s the original aircraft is the DC-10.
F35bOf course EADS/KC-30 Kool-Aid drinkers just can not see (or if they do flatly refuse to recognize) the fact that the Boeing offer was a much better offer that met all the key requirements, many more non-key requirements, was assesed by even the now exposed to be anti-Boeing KC-X Source Selection Team as being superior in far more requirements, inferrior in far fewer requirements and who’s superiority was mostly more in the higher priority requirements & who’s inferirity was mostly in lower priority requirements.
Go on then Pfcem name all these requirements that boeing were better on. you have mentioned them over 100 times but still don’t go into details or FACTS.
F35bWhy does this have to get announced now? How can they judge this big a cost overrun before the ships are even getting built. Good one Royal Navy couldn’t they of kept this under there hats at least until some of the ship was built and then release it bit by bit over a few months. I would love to see a breakdown of what the cost over runs are and why they all come out into the open now.
Most likely the bloody MOD adjusting the design to save a few pennies ending up costing them pounds. How many design changes have there been since the design was finalized?
Please can we just have 2 carriers built to the design spec and to at least nearly the price quoted.
Is this a case of the contractors giving unrealistic quotes just to secure the deal and then jacking it up after it’s signed.
I vote for the wee kid that is the boss of Triple Velvet Toilet tissue to run the MOD. He seems to do well on the TV adverts. Soft Soft Soft!
F35bWhen will the UK learn that by putting off the big procurement buys for ages now means we have a huge backlog of things to pay for. They are all more expensive because they have been strung out.
If i was a suppliers only regular customer and said to him can you deliver me 1000 potatoes next Friday he would say yes that’s £30. If then next Thursday 1 day before the original delivery day i said scrap that can i have 10 potatoes delivered every day except for some day’s i’m a bit skint but i will let you know those days a few hours before delivery. Do you think he will still give me 1000 potatoes for £30!!! NO he will have to charge me probably over £300 because of all the extra costs he has incurred.
Why is the government the MOD and Treasury so Thick!
I say take £10 billion and bloody buy everything and start on a clean slate and never get in this mess again.
I see UOR for like £700 million hardly even get a mention anymore. These are a huge drain on the budget. Sure the treasury picks up some of the outlay cost but who has to pay for the maintenance, the transport to theatre, the training, the spare parts, etc etc. You can’t fight a war on a peace time budget!
F35bMY kool Aid drinking A330 is bigger and better than your 767 so there! oh no it’s not my 767 is what the USAF want while your A330 is just a big heavy piece of junk that will smash up the runway with its HUGE weight.
Mine is better than yours and if you don’t like it i’m going to write a 1000 word essay again and again until i drive everyone away from reading this forum!!!
Please stick to the facts. We don’t know what was in the original USAF proposal, we don’t know what will be in the new proposal and we don’t know how points will be awarded. All we know is that KC-45 won last time.
BRING ON THE KOOL AID. BY the way mine is better than yours.
F35bDoes anyone else find the picture of a Typhoon submarine just cruising past the beach a little bit hard to belive. The people on the beach don’t even seem to notice there is a HUGE missile carrying sub about 50 yards offshore. Wouldn’t it be a bit risky to be that close to land. Anyone else think they have seen this picture before without the beach?
Hopefully next time i’m down portobello beach HMS Vanguard can cruise buy. Maybe even fire off a couple of tridents just for show?
F35bI’m in edinburgh to and i saw a Chinook on Monday at about 5pmish. Then Yesterday there was a Chinook following a merlin at what looked like about 100 feet apart. Not sure if they were just changing direction but looked like they were chasing each other.
There are normally helicopters flying past my work in morningside but it’s normally just civilian ones. I get a nice view out the office window and in the past year i’ve seen seakings, lynxs, gazelles, chinooks and even 2 apaches. Maybe they are going to redford barracks? It’s not exactly common to see these over edinburgh but the types i’ve seen the most are the chinooks and seaking only seen the gazelle and apaches once.
F35bI’m not sure about the 777 seems far to big for KC-X. I think Boeing are trying to cover every avenue to make sure they can protest if the contract goes to Northrop Grumman by saying we have offered a range of suitable aircraft. Does anyone have a picture of size comparison between the KC135, 767, A330, and 777? I’m sure i have seen it somewhere (maybe minus the 777)?
Why don’t Boeing offer the 787 surely this is the perfect size to compete with the A330. Maybe it’s because of all the foreign content in that makes the argument of Made in America not hold any water. I thought the 777 had a lot of foreign content as well though?
F35bIf the F3 has wing issues then it’s probably going to the scrappers yard. I didn’t know about any airframe issues. i thought the F3 would be a strong aircraft seen as it was based on the GR1 for flying very low level through rough air. If the cold war was still going on then they may have been kept but seen as we don’t need much Air defence for the UK i think the F3 are doomed to the breakers yard.
If the UK decided to just give them away with all available spares who would be interested? Instead of scrapping them we should just give them away if someone wants them. Maybe Iraq would take them lol.
I have been trying to think of tasks that the RAF would require a 2 seater big aircraft for? All i can come up with would be a jammer. This is something the UK and Europe are really lacking in. If you had £25 million for each aircraft to make a jammer would that be enough? I thinking a complete strip down with new electronics’s/computer’s and any other parts that need replaced. maybe 2 squadrons on 12 plus a 6 aircraft OCU and 2 spare. That makes 32 x 25 million. I often think it is easier for the UK to refit aircraft than buy new aircraft. If money wasn’t such an issue maybe it would be worth it but with the current UK budget nothing is going to happen.
There are lots of projects i would prefer to see 1st like more MR4’s or standoff bombers and intelligence aircraft. The CVF and F35B’s. Development of things we actually need. We don’t need 232 eurofighters to defend the UK. What we need is aircraft that can fight all over the world. If this means developing long range bomber’s and carrier born UCAV’s then thats what we should do. More CVF’s and escorts and relevant equipment would be another could purchase.
What i would do is raise enough cash to purchase everything we have on order so we can have a fresh start from 2010. The current policy of delaying things is just pushing projects into time when we need to pay for other projects. The MOD currently has a huge backlog of projects and is bringing items into service that was more relevant 10 years ago. The UK has to sort this out and i would raise the budget for 1 years to pay for all current projects and start again after that.
I think i smell coffee and toast oh god i’ve been dreaming again of how to sort out the UK Defence budget equipment issues.
F35bGod Mr lewis seems to be everywhere. What’s he ever done in life that makes him such an expert in all aspects of defence?
I signed cause everytime they put off a decision they are pushing it into the next big defence program. We are getting a pileup of big defence project items that should of been paid for years ago because of this kicking it into the long grass for a bit attitude of the government.
Nuff Said!
F35bI think the crash that happened off Brazil by the Air France aeroplane was an A340 which has 4 engines. I’ve not heard anything about the Black boxes so far and i think the signal they put out starts to fade after 30 days. I think they are about 3 weeks into the search so we may never find the Black Boxes.
Hopefully we see a tanker decision soon i hate all this waiting around. The whole Made in America Boeing stuff is rubbish anyway. The difference between the A330 and the 767 parts and construction content that is done in America is really small. I think we are talking under 5% difference maybe in favour of Boeing. But when you add in the a whole new factory would be built with the Northrop bid the A330 would create more jobs since the 767 line would be switching to the 787 anyway.
The 777 is too big for this portion of the tanker contract. That’s not to say it won’t be good for KC-10 replacement part of the tanker contract.
The A330 does appear to be the better plane for the first part of the contract (KC-X) over the 767 and 777 and here a few points of why i think this:
It can take off and land in less distance. (Very important)
It carries more fuel/cargo/people but has a lighter footprint on the tarmac. (very important)
It brings new jobs to America and will probably guarantee Airbus will be in America for the next 50+ years. This is great for creating jobs and bringing in money. (important)
It will be in service with airlines for longer than 767 which is good for spares + upgrades. (Important)
It can fly further and offload more fuel without needing to be a HUGE plane like the 777. (Important)
The A330 will be supplied faster than the 767 and will give the airforce more planes by set delivery times. (very Important)
The A330 has been picked by a lot more countries for their Tanker/Transportation requirements than the Boeing. There must be reason for this and it ain’t bribery.
I am not anti Boeing and i wish people would think of it as Northrop Grumman versus Boeing because when you put it like that it takes the argument right out of this Made in America rubbish. The difference is tiny. The same amount of jobs will be created which ever plane is picked If not slightly in NG favour.
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