Well, with a CATOBAR carrier I suppose they’re better off with this than a helo, but why invest in this much logistics for a small carrier like the Foch?

Future variant (conversion) with Erieye mounted (rather than Hawkeye)?

on serious side it does not look that big how will it carry cruise missiles? or do they mean laser guide bombs?

It looks like a converted target drone.. not a bad idea for a long range v1 type weapon.. always wondered why more countries have this arrangement..

if nothing else it would occupy radar systems..

Would you think that they took some of the BQM 74C fired in Iraq and reverse engineered them?

I don’t think they would need to take any from those fired into Iraq to reverse engineer them:

MQM-74C Chukar II

The Navy liked the Chukar I but wanted a somewhat faster version, and in the early 1970s Northrop developed the improved experimental MQM-74B, which was followed by the production MQM-74C Chukar II. The Chukar II is difficult to distinguish from the Chukar I, but the Chukar II is slightly scaled up and uses an uprated Williams WR24-7 turbojet with 180 pound (800 N) thrust, giving it a top speed of 590 mph (950 km/h).

Like the Chukar I, the Chukar II is ground or ship launched only. At least 1,400 Chukar IIs were built, mostly for the US Navy, but other customers included NATO, Great Britain, West Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BQM-74_Chukar

CODAG WARP (Combined Diesel and Gas – Water Jet and Refined Propeller) propulsion system of the A-200 SAN.

Source: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/meko/meko4.html

Propulsion system
The propulsion system is based on a CODAG-WARP (Combined Diesel and Gas – Water Jet and Refined Propeller) configuration. Two MTU 16V 1163 TB 93 diesel engines (5,920kW each) drive controllable pitch propellers and a single GE LM 2500 20,000kW gas turbine acts on a waterjet propulser system, providing a maximum speed of more than 27kt.

Source: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/meko/

CODAG Water jet And Refined Propeller, a system developed by Blohm + Voss as option for their MEKO line of ships, also falls in this category but avoids the above mentioned problems. CODAG WARP uses two diesel engines to drive two propellers in a CODAD arrangement, i.e. both shafts can also be powered by any single engine, and a centerline water jet powered by a gas turbine. The idling water jet doesn’t cause drag and since its nozzle can be placed further aft and higher it doesn’t affect the size of the propellers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_diesel_and_gas#CODAG_WARP

Hmmm, in terms of countermeasures then would it not be possible to use a highly accurate free fall ‘dumb’ bomb? I’m surprised LGBs aren’t used against naval targets if they are effective

If you can use Phalanx on land to catch mortar bombs and such, then catching an LGB from a ship shouldn’t be to hard.

a twin engined helicopter to replace the Chetak and Cheetah ? Does that make any sense or is it a mistake by the journo ?

e.g. Eurocopter AS355 Ecureuil 2 (Twin Squirrel): development began in the early 1970s to replace the Alouette II. The Eurocopter AS550 Fennec and AS555 Fennec 2 are lightweight, multipurpose military helicopters manufactured by Eurocopter Group. Based on the AS350 Ecureuil and AS355 Ecureuil 2 series, they are named after the Fennec Fox. The armed versions of the AS550 and AS555 can be fitted with coaxial weapons, rockets, torpedoes and various other munitions.

Indeed utter rubbish, doing a bit of research the rumour first appeared Autumn last year in the Guardian. It was stomped down at the time by India when it was pointed out that they already have INS Vikramaditya in final fit out, the new IAS-1/INS Vikrant starting build at Cochin and a fifty to sixty thousand ton CTOL carrier IAC-2 planned. To sell PoW to India would require us undercutting Cochin which means selling at a massive loss and I doubt India would bite as it would be detrimental to their own shipbuilding industry.

As for other countries that operate carriers or would like to:

Brazil already has Sao Paulo that can soldier on for another fifteen years, PoW even reduced would be outside their potential budget to buy and operate. Finally I think they want something new, smaller (forty thousand tons I recon) and benefits local industry.

China: Locally building new carriers and politically unacceptable.

Argentina: no chance.

Italy: built their own in the form of Cavour, will probably build more of the same

Spain: Building their own for F35 in the form of Juan Carlos class.

Thailand: can’t afford to operate what they have.

America: what would be the point?!

South Korea: Might want external help designing but local production.

Japan: Could afford it with their gold plated millitary budget but its far too big and aggressive for their liking. Also like South Korea would prefer local production.

Australia: The Juan Carlos class they are buying with Ski Jumps would allow them to operate F35 if they want.

How about France?

it may be that the NK vessel fired down a back bearing and that neither vessel had actually detected the other.

Uhm, why would a NK vessel fire a torpedo at something it hadn’t even detected?