Exactly what i said to him in a chat 😉

Interesting that the Germans are offering the fuelcell right from day one where as the French are offering it as an upgrade later on.

What I would like to know is how is the IN plans for procurement of the four Akula class subs going?

Oh dear Arthur’s at it again, too many of those dutch beers!

Ok well since I’m out of my league (yet again) here is the lcurrent list of armed TP users globally:

Aermacchi Redigo/ Vamlet Vinka: Eritrea, Finland , Mexico.

Aermacchi SF-260E: Italy, Mexico.

Aerospatiale TB 30 Epsilon: Togo (this is the only user of this plane that has it armed).

Beech T-34C Turbo Mentor: Argentina, Ecuadore, Peru, Taiwan, Uruguay.

Dassult Atlantic and Atlantique 2: France, Germany (soon to retire in favour of Orions bought from the Dutch), Italy and Pakistan (unique in being the only country to operate both the Alt and Orion in the same sqdn).

EADS CASA C212: Angola, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Dominica, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela.

EADS CASA CN-235: Ireland, Spain, Turkey.

Embraer EMB-111 (P-95): Angola, Brazil, Chile, Gabon, Peru.

FMA IA-58 Pucara: Argentina, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay.

Fokker F-50: Singapore.

GAF Nomad N-22/N-24: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Phillipines, Thailand (mostly used as gunships with .50 cal gun pods under the wings).

[b]Grumman S-2 Tracker:[b] Argentina, Taiwan, Uruguay.

Grumman OV-1 Mohawk: Argentina (I have seen pics of these machines with light bombs on them as well).

IAI Arava: Bolivia, Cameroon, Ecudore, El Salvadore, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela.

Ilyushin Il-38 May: India, Russia.

IAe CN-235: Brunei, Indonesia (these are different a/c toi those built by EADS CASA).

Lockheed AC-130 Specture: USA.

Lockheed P-3 Orion: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Germany*, Greece, Iran+, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Thailand (* being bought from the Netherlands and delivered after the planed upgrade, + Iran’s P-3 fleet is in an unknown status, they haven’t flown for some time but that doesn’t preclude them from still flying).

Lockheed CP-140 Aurora/Arcturus: Canada (thesde a/c differ from the standard Orions in that they have the systems of an S-3 Viking on board).

Pilatus PC-6 Turbo Porter/ Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker: Thailand.

Pilatus PC-9: Angola, Australia,Croatia, Iraq+, Myanmar (Burma). (Most of the Iraqi Armed PC-9’s were destroyed during operation Iraqi Freedom).

PZL Warszawa-OkecieTurbo Orlik: Poland

Rockwell OV-10 Bronco: Indonesia, Morroco, Phillipines, South Korea, Thailand, Venezuela.

Tupolev TU-95/142 Bear: India, Russia

this nis interesting, I know a few people here where I’ll be at the HARS airshow today that would be interested in having this in the collection, going to add it to my ebay items so that I can send it on to them. Thanks.

IIRC aren’t they pressing ahead with this design to surpass many of the other designs as well? Weren’t there going to be an eventual total of 88 of these vessels?

Maybe I’m just getting old and sanity is starting to slip.

Well G/l with it mate, hope you do well.

Just wish I could get my degree in Advanced Sea Warfare and applied topology. meh oh well!

Maybe I should move over to the States

Well the Us is cutting back since they are trying to find more fund for both the War on Terror and Iraq, base closures are put of it’s solutions