Well, Russia may have won the battle but lost the war! So, they get a few hundred million more for the Carrier but loose billions more with the lose of the MMRCA Contract! As a matter of fact the West is gaining defense orders in a market Russian had cornered for decades. With orders going to the Hawk Trainer, C-130, and P-8I just for starters. What is Russia thinking????:confused:

Dont be quite so sure, allow me to explain. India and Russia might be all buddy buddy at the moment but essentially they both have to play in the same backyard, along with China. The great game may be well and truly over but the geography remains the same and central Asia still contains a lot of weak states (comparatively) that all 3 will compete for influence over. In the mean time Russia can use defence exports to India to subsidise its own procurement. Russia and India are not natural allies, as much as many here will never admit the US and India are. Both are powerful democracies with security concerns about China and muslims.

So by your own arguements for the Nimrod missle wagon being gifted to the Royal Navy, or indeed that that such a missle truck isn’t needed since the RN’s SSN can do the job.

Then yes a Warship should belong to the Army

The USAF has the B-1B and B-2 for just such occassions, but then again by you own arguement the USAF shouldn’t have B52s, B-1Bs or B-2s since SSNs are apparently so capable in your opinion.

Quite the contrary, if the US or the UK feels the need to have a real strategic bomber (for which the doctrinal justification is questionable anyway) and not a re jigged 1940s airliner I see no reason why it should not be operated by the navy who could then form a unified power projection and deterrence force, much as handing over CAS activities over to the Army should result in a real battlefield capability. The last time Britain developed a viable CAS plane was 1918.

You pop away at said scum bags pete ,don’t listen to sea lord ,may be hes taken a few .177s in his direction before.
Anyway if the bobbies are called tell them you where aiming for the rat….

Are you trying to call me scum? Personally I think anybody who advocates the use of a deadly weapon against other people who are at worst committing yob behavior are scum.

How long? As I said, just as long as a B-52

An occasion where strike missions have been caried out without political build-up doesn’t exist, you name a naval asset that can’t be detected days out from a target and obliterated

Why so laughable? are you going to launch a nimrod off a carrier? No, you are going to use a land based runway, at which point stop being a naval asset.

MR2s have stormshadow capable hardpoints, MRA4 was designed with stormshadow capability in mind, any MRA4 bomber would have the same capability

Name such occasions?

A warship has to go into port, does that make it an Army asset?

Thats why the US procured the B-1B and the B-2.

As to the “who would win in the air” debate, until the mid-1980’s the point was irrelevant. Not until the mid-1980s did the West have a large enough quantity of quality armor to be able to act as little more than a bump in the road in the Fulda Gap. After the mid-80s, the advantage shifted to the West. But before then, yes, sheer numbers would’ve resulted in Soviet tank generals sitting in Paris cafes joking about who won the air war.

I am sure you are well aware of this SOC, but by the late eighties there were people in the DoD seriously suggesting that they would not even have to go nuclear by the mid-nineties.

It would have a similar expected lifespan to the B52, given that is has a fairly similar operational ceiling, and in a bomber role, the removal of several tons of heavy recon gear would put it at a 40,000lbs+ payload class, with 4 external harpoints, a HUGE internal bay, very long loiter capabilities and can carry long range A2A missiles for it’s own defence (even though it would never go unescorted)

If the B-52 has a role the Nimrod could be used the same way, cruise missile truck, long loiter ground support, bomb truck, and as for the navy doing all the power projection, do me a favour, it takes a week for them to get anywhere, a nimrod out of Brize could be engaging targets in hours.

Face it “sea lord” you’re wrong, you will always be wrong and the RAF isn’t going anywhere!

So how are you going to escort a Nimrod on a long range mission then?:rolleyes:

The concept may make sense for CAS, in which case give it to the Army. With the carriers and Tomahawk equipped SSN’s not to mention Trident and the Amphibious fleet the navy already has the UK’s power projection capabilities.

If you really think using a Nimrod for strategic bombing is great idea (which it is not) then ehy not give the asset to the navy?

Oops, sorry, didn’t realise, nature/animal lover = veggy, must become one of those, then go on to the ultimate goal of becoming a vegan and recycle all my shoes, then trot off to the nearest church for a few ‘Hail Mary’s’ for all my sins and hideous guilt at not wanting to kill a rat.

Besides, whats wrong with being a veggy, does anyone have a problem with that, you obviously do.

Putting words in my mouth I see.:rolleyes:

You have made itperfectly clear that you dislike people who kill animals, that being explained by your countryside alliance remark.:mad:

Are you a pykie by any chance, or almost as bad, one of those people with a ‘Countryside Alliance’ poster in their window, though you should perhaps consider your belligerent quotes on your ‘character’ site.

As for your last statement, you must live in a parallel universe, unknown to us.

I presume the local eejits don’t really mean to carry out their acts of destruction on our lovely riverside walk, the beer cans and plastic bags that they throw in the river and it’s environs must accidentally fall out their pockets, along with the supermarket trollies, stolen bikes, syringes, and general cr#p.
Its a shame that they unknowingly walk into newly planted trees and knock them over and obviously mean well when they accidentally set fire to a centuries old oak tree.
Obviously the local wildlife appreciate motorbikes being illegally ridden through their habitat and during the winter enjoy a bit of warmth from those stolen, dumped and torched cars.

The local authority help as well, they like to run gang mowers through the nesting sites of rare birds, well, gives em a bit more room doesn’t it, also gives more space for the local druggies to sit around and aim their lager cans at whatever rare butterfly they can spot, not that there’s many left.

What cracked us up last night was watching Bill Oddies current nature programme, guess what, he has a rat in his garden and has the same problem as me, trouble is, many offspring have appeared to.
He’s tried every remedy without resorting to nasty measures, I will be interested to see how this pans out.

Vegetarian by any chance?:rolleyes: