@Distiller said they are closing 2015 as well, only if US insist on un-acceptable restrictions on codes will there be alternatives to F-35C for UK.
Oh, and i think more F-35C will be ordered only to replace losses, any increase in numbers will be made up through UAV.

The losses issue is significant though, as the UK could operate without a 1/3 reserve of aircraft, which on a 36 jet order, gives it almost a 3rd squadron. The same goes for training in the US, ditch the OCU, gain another frontline squadron.

Your images are really excellent.
Now why would it have its anti-collision lights on during the daytime?:)

Its also a very bright light for something in such bright sunlight.

VMFAT-101 has more experience transition pilots STOVL back to CATOBAR.

They’re a lot easier than to navalize say the typhoon, but it would still require a lot of the services of NAVAIR in lakehurst in both engineering and testing.

My original comments are with respect to Typhoon and Gripen, no need to mention the Typhoon twice.

Thats pre-SDSR when the 12 pilots were supposed to be from the former 801 sqdn that they held back on reforming when the killed off teh Sea Harrier early, 800sqdn and the rest of the 801 lot would have continued in the NSW element of JFH.

With the SDSR and the disbanding of the Harrier squadrons the Govt said the Naval Harrier pilots would be trained in the US, although i suspect the exact nature of that program is still being negotiated with the US so we probably wont know the details for some time or where our former Harrier pilots are currently assigned.

If they do receive their training in the US then the RN should be able to avoid having an OCU, valuable considering the low number of A/C that will serve.

OK, I am convinced.

And yes, It is a vey long time since I programmed anything. My last attempt was as programming manager (before I got into sales) and that was in COBOL (sic!).

I still have the books though.

Reading a bit up on ADA, yes, I can see the advantages over C or C++. Blue screen in the middle of a dog fight would be quite boring, yes.

Programming with no API’s, drivers, etc etc, would be a challenge. programming straight to the metal is hard. I take my hat off to those people.

But it emphasises the point: It takes a lot more time and your code will be more prone to bugs as you have to do a lot of the trivial things on your own, everytime. After all, the API are there to minimize code and to eliminate trivial errors.

On ADA: I learned about it univeristy some(many) moons ago. I even tried LISP which was the best thing since sliced bread. ADA was in the class of Pascal; hence my memories of a procedural language. But yes, time has moved. Although I would never have thought that an ADA compiler would have made it to this date.

The worst I have ever been involved in was the arrival of a “new” mini computer the company wanted to market. We only had the hardware and a manual. So we wrote an OS, sub-routines (it was called) for a tape deck, printers, screens, etc. It was HARD!

I would have thought we would have been furthr today, but alas.

Ivan

Further as in Java for safety critical applications?

makes a lot of sense. It is always good to listen to clever people.

Can it then be said that if someone should be comig up wth a development environment, making a quantum leap, that one (country) would be a “winner” in terms of getting a product to market faster than anybody else?

I am of course thinking of the Tejas. India has some of the finest software engineers in the world.

Isn’t there a pressure on the stores developers to offer “ease of inegration” i.e. some standardised API’s? If I could offer a product where the integration effort is far less than anything else, it could even negate some of the capabilities of the product (as has been seen in the civilian world. fantastic product, no API’s -> no market. Good enough product, ease of integration-> plenty of customers).

It also seems to have one of the worst reputations for software engineers in the world, so you’ve got to look at both sides of the coin. Even if they did have the best software engineers, it wouldn’t make up for the fact that the Indians are fantastic, almost in a league of their own, in their ability to screw up defence and aerospace projects. Then they turn to external help, from their competitors?

It could be possible to make some leaps in software in terms of software that writes itself, and optimises itself, to an extent, but the Indians aren’t leaders in this, the European countries are from what I’ve been told. That said, I can’t see how this would be a huge step from just improving existing code in this application.

Really? How so?
You have just called bw on unsubstantiated claims so i wouldn’t expect you to do the same 😉

I’ve already evidenced my claim above. You should read, before you write. To repeat myself, the Typhoons are fairly busy with air taskings, the Tornadoes have much less to do, therefore its not worth sending a Typhoon to A’stan. Sure, if Tornado GR4 could properly cover QRA, then maybe we could debate which of Typhoon and Tornado should do the QRA and which should do A’stan. The Tornado is also going to reach its end of service before Typhoon, so if we are going to use up airframe hours, it would be best to do so on the Tornado GR4, not the Typhoons.

To take the “experience” point, how much experience will a Tornado pilot get sitting in a hangar whilst Typhoon pilots do all the strike taskings and all the air defence taskings? 😎

Clearly, when the UK believes it can spare some Typhoons. They will deploy a number to Afghanistan.

Or they just won’t deploy any ever 🙂

True to a point……..Yet, the Typhoon will be used in the CAS Role in the future. It’s hardly gaining experience setting on a runway in the UK.

Typhoon has to do the QRA North, QRA South and the Falklands, and it has its own training ect to do. Some Typhoon might also be in for updates. Tornado don’t do any QRA, so they are likely less busy.