Page 29 – Key Publishing

Steve Touchdown

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 421 through 435 (of 812 total)

← 1 2 3 … 28 29 30 … 53 54 55 →

Author

Posts
March 18, 2004 at 5:59 pm in reply to: Pakistan is a Key US Ally #2660529

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Originally posted by parkashk
Steve

Do you know what privis enatail no-nato ally. What benefits militarily these countries enjoy?

That’s a good question, parkashk, but I hadn’t realised until this thread started that such a status existed!

To be mentioned alongside Jordan, Israel and Egypt is certainly good news, if factually correct, as all of these countries have benefitted from vast amounts of military aid in recent years.

To look at costs for a second, specifically for surplus F-16s, you only have to look at recent Jordanian deliveries for working example:

Fiscal Year: 2003 Country: JORDAN
Implementing Agency: Department of the Air Force
Type of Transfer: Grant Authority (516)
Item: F-16 BLOCK 15 Model: 81-0805_
Congressional Notification Sent: 12/19/02 Quantity Allocated: 1
Unit Acquisition Value: $5,978,546
Congressional Expiration: 1/19/03
Quantity Accepted: 1
Authorized to Supply: 1/24/03
EDA Accepted: 2/10/03 Total Quantity Delivered: 1
Total Current Value: $1,195,710

The 2 figures to note from the above are the acquisition value (ie how much it cost to buy in 1981) and the current value. As you can see the DoD cost the Block 15 Viper at just over $1 million. These cost nothing to Jordan: they were leased at first and then grant-aided slightly later.

Best regards

Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News

March 18, 2004 at 3:32 pm in reply to: Pakistan is a Key US Ally #2660666

Steve Touchdown
Participant

I was going to stick these pics up in the other thread about the much-discussed F-16s…until it got deleted thanks to a flame war :rolleyes:

I posted these on the forum a couple of years back, but I guess the thread has long gone thanks to the board change etc.

These are some of the original batch of F-16s that Pakistan bought and paid for in the early 1990s that only made it as far as AMARC and many years’ storage.

All the shots were taken by myself in October 1993.

Steve ~ Touchdown-News

March 17, 2004 at 4:29 pm in reply to: Eurofighter status? #2661607

Steve Touchdown
Participant

IT002 – the second two-seater for the Italian Air Force (AMI) – was apparently delivered to 4 Stormo at Grosseto yesterday (16th March).

Best regards

Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News

March 17, 2004 at 3:59 pm in reply to: Budget 2004 #2661677

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Re: Budget 2004

Originally posted by Phil Foster
I think I heard some politico say on the news that the defence budget was not being touched. Has anybody else heard anything?

They don’t generally announce which Gov’t depts budgets are upped or cut at this time, Phil, but some indication of future funding was hinted at:

Budget 2004: special report

17 March 2004

Gordon Brown today drew the battle lines for the next election, announcing plans to slash thousands of Whitehall jobs and funnel the cash into frontline public services.

He avoided any headline-grabbing tax or duty increases – and did not even mention income tax in his 54-minute speech to the Commons.

Instead the Chancellor outlined plans to axe more than 40,000 public posts, but pledged the savings would be poured into extra investment in areas like education and defence.

And from the text of Gordon Brown’s speech itself:

Full announcements will be made in the Spending Review in July but I can confirm the following decisions.

It has been put to me that we freeze the defence budget and cut it in real terms.

At a time when our armed forces are now serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo as well as in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, this course would be irresponsible, contrary to the national interest and I reject it. In the last Spending Review we allocated the largest spending increase in 20 years to defence and I can tell the House that I propose real terms increases in defence spending.

March 16, 2004 at 7:48 pm in reply to: Are they stark staring mad? #2662857

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Originally posted by SOC

You get what you pay for. We’re paying for complete and total air dominance. Lockheed is delivering.

Absolutely spot-on, Sean.

The trouble is…you can’t afford it! 😀 😀 😀 😀

March 16, 2004 at 5:02 pm in reply to: Are they stark staring mad? #2663104

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Originally posted by SOC

Besides, we should have skipped right by the F-22 to the F-23 anyway 😀

Now that’s the most sensible thing you’ve said since lunchtime, SOC! 😀

Okay, to be serious for just a second, anybody interested in the F/A-22 and large-scale defence procurement in general, should take a look at the review request that apparently came from the White House:

http://www.pogo.org/m/dp/dp-ombfa22-2004.pdf

and the GAO report that was published on-line yesterday:

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-391

Let’s be honest, the current administration (read: Rumsfeld) had it in mind to skip a “generation” of DoD programmes even before GWB won office.

Cheers

Steve ~ Touchdown-News

March 16, 2004 at 1:31 pm in reply to: formation of 40 a/c #2663289

Steve Touchdown
Participant

I posted a heads-up about this a couple of weeks back (thread was “Harrier Bombing Competition”).

Scotty (the Range Controller at Holbeach) has been posting updates over the last week or so to the Touchdown-News list, and this was his latest:

THURSDAY MARCH 25th 2004!

HARRIER BOMBING COMPETITION!

To mark the formation of the first RN GR7 unit at Cottesmore, and the demise of the Sea Harrier.

42 aircraft from Cottesmore & Wittering, along with at least 8 Sea Harriers, will take part in a bombing competition at Holbeach and Wainfleet AWRs, before forming up over the Wash estuary and performing flypasts at Coningsby and Cranwell, before recovering to Cottesmore to get mightly hoofed!

Anyway, chaps, there’s confirmation of the mass launch from both units…….there will definitely be at least 8 Sea Harriers amongst the 42 coming to Holbeach, cos I was talking to the Navy flight leader this very morning.

It’s going to be carnage!

Anyone interested in coming to Holbeach Range to watch/take pikkies, reply to me direct please!

Message Ends!

March 12, 2004 at 9:14 pm in reply to: General Discussion #384834

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Strikes me as fairly ironic considering the post about “anti-social behaviour” less than a week back. :rolleyes:

March 12, 2004 at 9:14 pm in reply to: Fireworks event anyone up for it ? #1968650

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Strikes me as fairly ironic considering the post about “anti-social behaviour” less than a week back. :rolleyes:

March 12, 2004 at 9:11 pm in reply to: General Discussion #384835

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Originally posted by kev35
Sauron, are all Canadians frustrated Americans? Or is it just you?

Regards,

kev35

Aww don’t be so hard on the Flaming Vagina, Kev: I think “ignorant troll” would be more accurate than “frustrated American”.

March 12, 2004 at 9:11 pm in reply to: Relocation of UN headquarters to Haiti #1968653

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Originally posted by kev35
Sauron, are all Canadians frustrated Americans? Or is it just you?

Regards,

kev35

Aww don’t be so hard on the Flaming Vagina, Kev: I think “ignorant troll” would be more accurate than “frustrated American”.

March 12, 2004 at 3:13 pm in reply to: > > > > > > > . Q . U . I . Z . < < < < < < < #2666500

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Thanks, Guys

that’s about what I thought. I have a feeling that all of those Dets (including the ones at Araxos and Incirilik) may well have disbanded now and jurisdiction passed to a unit at Aviano in Italy.

I was lucky enough to fly into RAF Macrihanish in a Nimrod almost exactly 20 years ago and was very surprised to find the weapons storage bunkers there guarded by US Marines/US Navy personnel. Then it clicked that the USN submarine facility at Holy Loch wasn’t exactly a long way from RAF Mac.

Cheers

Steve ~ Touchdown-News

March 12, 2004 at 1:28 pm in reply to: Gunship clip #2666654

Steve Touchdown
Participant

The AH-64 clip (plus plenty of others) is available at:

http://www.gibstuff.net/aircraft/Videos.html

Scroll down to “224Helicopter_Kills.zip” and save that to disk then open with Stuffit/WinZip etc. and it’s the same mpeg that I’d seen elsewhere that’s since been removed.

Best regards

Steve ~ Touchdown-News

p.s. I think a lot of people have removed videos from their sites because of the high bandwidth useage.

March 12, 2004 at 1:22 pm in reply to: > > > > > > > . Q . U . I . Z . < < < < < < < #2666667

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Arthur, weren’t the USAF also responsible for the nuke dets in Belgium (Kee Bee) and The Netherlands (can’t recall where…maybe Volkel?).

Cheers

Steve ~ Touchdown-News

March 11, 2004 at 9:24 pm in reply to: > > > > > > > . Q . U . I . Z . < < < < < < < #2667276

Steve Touchdown
Participant

Originally posted by Kenneth
1d) T-39 was used a multi-engine and navigator’s trainer (?=

Ooops missed that hadn’t already been answered.

The T-39s in ‘Nam flew mostly Scatback missions (base-to-base courier service with intelligence material etc.)

IIRC some were involved in moving more than just paper substances from one base to another…………:D

Steve
Author

Posts

Viewing 15 posts - 421 through 435 (of 812 total)

← 1 2 3 … 28 29 30 … 53 54 55 →