While, the F-4 was clearly more flexible………man the F-8 could turn and burn! WOW:diablo:

That was my point earlier in the thread, as a pure fighter there were few aircraft at the time that could touch the F-8 series!;)

Interesting to note that the .wmv on the MoD website shows AEW via Seaking.

Also notice how small the ski jump looks in comparison to the one on the Ark.

The ski jump looks bigger on the Ark becouse it is the same Jump installed on a vessel about a third of the displacement of the CVF.

By the way the number of escorts has already fallen, with T-23s having been sold to chile and the DDG fleet will be cut to six by the time the last T-45 is delivered. That will reduce the surface combatant fleet to 23 unless a miracle happens and T-45s 7 and 8 are ordered. What used to be the FSC program appears to be in a perpetual state of purgatory, leaving the Frigate fleet to soldier on for an as yet to be determined period of time, whilst being under threat of further cut backs to fund upcoming programs such as MARS and LPH(R). If you want to make sarcastic comments about ‘doom and gloom merchants’, its up to you but frankly your post read more like a labour party/government propaganda statement than a sensible comment from somebody living in the real world.

Obviously it is good news that the ships have been ordered however it seems that the government has decided to stick with the ridiculous V/STOL set up instead of going CTOL, but at least they have been ordered its a relief all round.

Well they’re not quite in the same class. SM-4 is about a foot in diameter and 14 feet long. This thing appears to be based on KEI which is three feet and diameter and 36 feet long. More like a Pershing II (though you can bet your a$$ nobody would point THAT out) than an SM-2.

I had forgotten how big that thing was! Seems like the perfect candidate for an IRBM though and there is no getting away from the advantages in terms of reaction time. If the USN does get forced down insane road of a 25,000 ton KEI carrying ABM cruiser this might be a way of making it multi-role.

A question was just asked in PMQ’s, the reply was ‘I hope you will be pleased with the announcement to be made in the next few minutes’.

Interesting concept, I would be intrigued to know the intended range of the system but it looks like it has promise. It should offer a better reaction time than either aircraft or cruise missiles and removes the need to have an aircraft over defended territory. Depending on size, it might make a good candidate to replace the now defunct land attack version of the SM-2 in the Navy?

He mentioned the last 10-15 years, not me.

I don’t dispute that a larger gun could have its uses, but if there are only going to be limited upgrades either across the lives of the Darings or merely in the near future, I would not prioritise such a proposed new gun unless it was cheap enough to ensure no more urgent changes had to be postponed/scrapped.

That was my point, in the ideal wold the T-45s would have a 155mm Star Streak based CIWS, AShM’s, 72 VLS cells to start with etc etc. But this is not the ideal world.

Refinery capacity can’t keep up with demand, but that’s probably as much due to demand being inflated by smuggling, & refiners deliberately minimising the production of lighter fractions for petrol because it’s unprofitable, as it is due to an overall lack of capacity. I suspect that the removal of the subsidy would see both a drop in consumption & an increase in domestic supply, & quite possibly an end to the need for imports.

True, the non-oil economy is in a poor state, but high oil prices mean government revenues are adequate at the moment to prop things up, & still have something for the military.

That doesn’t mean that 250 Su-30Mks is realistic. I agree that it’s another fantasy. The Iranians may be looking at buying some, but I’m sure it won’t be 250. More likely to be zero.

IIRC Iran and Venezuela have signed a joint deal for the development of new refinerys.