Very interesting pictures there

I will have to be pedantic and point out that the silver aircraft shown, #559300, is the related Northrop F-15 Reporter.

In other words, the photo-recon variant of the P-61.

The USAAF would give PR aircraft a completely new designation even if they were modified from the base aircraft after leaving the factory. See P-38E/F – F-4 & P-38G/H/J/L – F-5.

China’s new Yuan-class sub seen preparing for sea trials

A new variant of the Type 039C/Type 041 Yuan-class conventional submarine with a raked sail

What is new, exactly?

New Chinese-sourced imagery shows that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) continues to modify its Type 041 Yuan class conventional submarine and that it is making progress towards a new large destroyer or cruiser.

On 10 and 11 December 2013 the first images of a new variant of the Type 041 – also sometimes referred to as the Type 039A, Type 039C or Type 039X – appeared on Chinese military web forums. It had just been launched by the Wuhan Shipyard of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), the major manufacturer of China’s non-nuclear powered submarines. Only seen partially in these first images, a new image seen on 6 April shows the new Type 041 variant has a raked sail that is similar to recent German SSK designs.

This new sail design may incorporate an additional high-frequency sonar at the base of the sail, as do some other submarines with similar designs. This Type 041 may also be slightly longer than previous variants.

Uncorroborated Chinese sources have suggested that the new variant displaces about 3,500 tons compared to about 3,000 tons for earlier Type 041s. This could indicate that the new variant has more weapons – IHS Jane’s Fighting Ships states that the existing variants are armed with YJ-2 (YJ-82) anti-ship missiles and a combination of Yu-4 (SAET-50) passive homing and Yu-3 (SET-65E) active/passive homing torpedoes. Yu-6 wake-homing torpedoes may also be carried.

The basic export version, marketed as the S20 and unveiled in February 2013, displaces about 2,300 tons.

Since 2004 12 Type 041 submarines are believed to have been launched, while the US Department of Defense estimated in its May 2013 annual report on China’s military to Congress that production could reach 20 ships.

http://www.janes.com/article/36577/china-s-new-yuan-class-sub-seen-preparing-for-sea-trials

There has been a lot of talk over the past few weeks of UK personnel placed with P3 operators and with the USN (under Project Seedcorn):

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/

The key point made in the Blog is that the UK isn’t sending people to watch operators of other types, and is showing an associated interest in Triton.

Does this mean that a P8 buy is a certainty that is being planned for once budgets are approved next year? And where does it put any UAV efforts by BAE or Airbus?

House of Commons written answers for 3 Apr 2014

3 Apr 2014 : Column 806W

Air Force: Training

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many personnel are taking part in the Seedcorn initiative; what the location is of each such person; and with what equipment such personnel are training.

Anna Soubry: As announced in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review the UK retains Seedcorn Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) capability with personnel embedded in MPA capabilities of our closest allies. The number and location of personnel and equipment are as follows:

Location / Number of Seedcorn personnel / Aircraft

Canada

Royal Canadian Air Force Greenwood / 6 / CP-140 Aurora

New Zealand

Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Whenuapai / 4 / P-3K Orion/P-3K2 Orion

Australia

Royal Australian Air Force base Edinburgh / 2 / AP-3C Orion

United States

Naval Air Station Patuxent River / 9 / P-8 Poseidon, 1 qualified on RQ-21A Blackjack UAV, 4 are scheduled to train on the MQ-4C Triton during June-August 2014

Naval Air Station Jacksonville / 11 / P-8 Poseidon

UK Team To Train on Triton as Government Ponders Purchase

LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) is dispatching a team to train on Northrop Grumman’s MQ-4C Triton UAV in the run-up to a possible decision next year on whether to re-establish a maritime patrol capability. Responding to a parliamentary question April 3, the government said that four personnel are “scheduled to train on the MQ-4C Triton during June and August, 2014.”

The Triton is a maritime version of the Global Hawk remotely piloted surveillance vehicle. The high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft is in its flight-test phase ahead of deliveries to the US Navy. The British government said the team will be trained at the US Navy’s Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said on a number of occasions that unmanned aircraft could meet at least part of the requirement for a future maritime patrol aircraft capability if the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) resurrects the requirements……..

Triton has already been ordered by the US Navy to operate alongside Boeing P-8 Poseidon MPAs. Australia has also said it intends to buy the machine to work with the P-8s it has on order…………

The British parliamentary answer also revealed that 20 personnel have been embedded with US Navy P-8 operations as part of a program to retain crew skills until a decision is made on whether to recreate a maritime patrol capability. The program, known as Seedcorn, has also seen smaller numbers of personnel embedded with Australian, Canadian and New Zealand maritime patrol forces.

An MoD spokeswoman declined to elaborate on why the British personnel were being trained on Triton, but said it is part of a wider effort to develop capabilities.

“The Seedcorn program provides a valuable opportunity to UK personnel for training, specialization and exposure within the maritime environment while working with our allies to develop our capabilities. Triton forms only one element of this program and only a small, select number of UK personnel are involved in work, which operates from Patuxent River,” the spokeswoman said.

Representatives from Northrop declined to comment.

Note that Triton is now in T&E – the flight-testing phase of development – thus the RAF personnel are being placed where they will gain intimate knowledge of all aspects of the aircraft and program.

Just Build new ones with 2014 tech….. Move 76mm gun forward. VLS for the rest of the missiles. Magazine in old gun position. Another where the MK13 was.
LCS program.. what a waste of money.

Another poster who either doesn’t know, or is deliberately ignoring, the reality that LCS is NOT designed to do the tasks the FFG was designed for – nor can any FFG, even a brand-new design, do the tasks the LCS IS designed to do.

Simply put, LCS is NOT A FRIGATE!

I do agree the USN does need some FFG-like ships, but IN ADDITION TO LCS, not instead of it.

IAF’s Hercules may have hit hillock

>edited for brevity<

from TOI

Specifically, here: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IAFs-Hercules-may-have-hit-hillock-say-preliminary-reports-on-crash/articleshow/32928658.cms

Why the liquid-cooling piston engine mounted on Nazi combat aircraft was always air-cooling piston engine alike?
Even further, don’t you think this one was like a propeller-fan driven engine more than a piston engine? Why?

Not “always”… far more German WW2 in-line engines had “normal” in-line cowlings and radiators than had circular cowlings with internal radiators. Look at the entire Messerschmidt line, most Heinkels, and so on.

Australia’s Customs Service Coastwatch program currently contracts with Surveillance Australia Pty Ltd for non-military air coverage of the coastal waters.

Headquartered in Adelaide, the company has three operational bases in Cairns, Darwin and Broome. It operates a fleet of six DHC-8-202 and four larger DHC-8-315 ‘Dash 8s’ modified for maritime patrol and surveillance. The surveillance aircraft are equipped with Raytheon SeaVue surface search radars with additional Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR), Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Moving target indication (MTI) capability, advanced electro-optical sensors and sophisticated communications suites.

One further Dash 8 is configured for the LADS contract.