would you say that in terms of frigates, the Indian ship building industry is now capable of building better ships than Russia

If you mean in the sense that it can build warships with the best systems sourced from Russia and the West, yes. If you mean in the sense that it can build state-of-the-art warships from the ground up with all the components designed and manufactured inhouse, no. If you look closely most of the propulsion systems, sensors, guns and missiles are not Indian in origin but foreign designs built under licence.

What are the dimensions of this new missile? I’m assuming for that range it has to be close to Tomahawk-size? And will it be compatible with the mk41 VLS?

It says Generation “4+” which probably means something along the lines of the Eurofighter and not a true stealth fighter. KF-X is a South Korean idea, recently they re-focussed the program from fifth-gen to fourth-gen due to technological limitations.

They should have tried to partner up with India, Sweden or Japan. All of them are planning fifth-gen fighter programs that are similar in concept to the old KF-X plan.

The plain answer would be:

Unless another non-Russian carrier-capable stealth fighter design pops out of thin air in a few years, yes, the Royal Navy needs the F-35B.:D

The bulk of my problem isn’t that you’ll spend on ships over villagers. It’s that you’d willingly finance one foreign nation’s defence programs at the cost of your own and then turn around and say you want to finance your defence programs at the cost of another foreign nation’s economic aid that unlike the previous case is actually helping to make the world a better place. Therein lies your hypocricy. Get it?

Nice. Seeing your hypocrisy utterly exposed you change tactics to attack the arguer instead of the argument and hide behind the prentention of staying on topic. Getting back to topic, I wonder how many of the CVF’s F-35Bs are going to get cut as a result of the first batch of F-16blk52s that will be delivered to Pakistan in a few days. No, I don’t even want your answer, just wondering, Liger.

And… An account of the work being done on the Queen Elizabeth’s bow section and propulsion system:
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/blog/queen-elizabeth-takes-its-bow/1003401.article

Powering the QE Class
The Power and Propulsion (P&P) for the two aircraft carriers is provided through an Integrated Electrical Propulsion (IEP) system. This comprises six electrical generators, four driven by Wartsilla diesel engines and two by Rolls Royce MT30 Gas Turbines. The electrical power is generated at High Voltage 11kV and is used to provide propulsive power through four 20MW Advanced Induction Motors arranged on two propeller shafts. However, it also supplies the carrier’s mission systems and hotel services through ship service transformers which convert the voltage down to 440V for distribution around the ship. The system builds on the experience gained by the Royal Navy through the electrical propulsion systems used on assault ships HMS Albion and Bulwark and the IEP systems on the Type 45 Destroyers. The QE Class use very similar equipment fitted to that of the Type 45 Destroyers, but of course are much larger.

Two of the Wartsilla diesel generators have also been delivered to the BAE Systems’ shipyard in Portsmouth where they will shortly be installed onto their seats in the Forward Machinery Room that is being constructed there. Currently the Machinery Room looks like a huge empty space with lots of pads for machinery seats, holes in the decks and bulkheads ready for pipes and cables. However, once the diesels are installed and the major pipe runs and walkways are fitted ready to be closed off by the structural units above the engine rooms will really start to take shape.

…

Liger30, before you shut yourself off in your ‘Us poor Europe, us defenceless, our interests wawoo’ mentality just remember these two points. I have nothing more to say beyond it.

–‘Welfare’ in Western terms means unemployment allowances, social security and subsidised healthcare. In third-world terms like these don’t even exist in the common man’s dreams. Here welfare means providing just enough food and shelter to countless homeless(or slum-dwelling), penniless and starving folk to enable them to continue surviving.

-The aid you give to Pakistan(Which, btw includes billions in economic aid given via the IMF and World Bank; want to cut that too since it doesn’t serve your idea of ‘British interests’?) does no more than to maybe reduce their casualties from perpetual anti-terror operations that will likely go on indefinitely. Their nations is no great threat of being conquered by ill-equipped gorillas.

BTW those funds which are according to you meant to privide anti-terror equipment are more often spent on AWACS and fighter planes for conventional war on India. I see you have no problem with letting a few thousand indian villagers die of starvation starve to buy more Eurofighters but will absolutely refuse to consider slashing a few of Pakistan’s 40 new freebie F-16s and 3 E-2C Hawkeyes. Ever wonder what they, an even poorer country, need with all that expensive hardware?

And no, my post is not intended to be anti-Pakistan. I’m clearing Liger’s moral pretentions on his views(which, of course, he’s welcome to, so long as he isn’t fooling anyone). Denying aid to the neediest on such flimsy and inconsistent grounds is not rational.