I’d like a high-low mix for FSC. High could be 10 or so T45s with Tomahawk. Low might be an enhanced Clyde design with a hangar, a CIWS, a 114mm MK8 Mod 1 and a few GPMGs. I’m not sure if they could squeeze 16 Aster 15s on a lengthened Clyde. Low could also just be the new VT Group design that is being sold to Oman. It is 97.5 metres long and probably costs around 140 million pounds for each ship.

I tend to agree with your view. With front line ships getting even more expensive it makes little sense to use them for police duties such as chasing drug smugglers.

what’s a caption competion? You need quess what is going on in that pic??

You have to come up with something funny that one of the people in the picture might be saying!

No.

Why do you think that. I’m not saying I disagree but intetrested to hear your thoughts.

That is the only source that is OFFICIAL and the rest is page 3 rumours and what not .. Fine if you also beleive that aleins landed at roswell , there is a hypersonic spy aircraft and that the mission to moon was faked..As it turned out I was the first one on this forum to post the EF and f-22 pic and this was before the F-22 was even operational as a combat ready fighter .

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48998&highlight=eurofighter+nellis

Seems as though you are always demanding proof but as soon as some US official says something you believe it automatically. Very interesting.

yeah all those advances in technology will be gone in aprox. 2 years 6 months 1 day and 34 minutes however will the detection distance advantage will also be lost??? the raptor has been tested against its own AESA radar and other AESA radars in the USAF and so far it has maintained a KILL advantage and the only cue of where it is comes from Aim-120 ( and this is without AWACS or with AWACS on both sides) , Now considering that the ROW adopts a new fighter AESA radar in the 2010 timeframe when will this radar get significantly back tagged and newer radar technology incorporated into aircrafts like the EF typhoon , rafale etc etc .. And this speaks nothing of newer sensors comming into the F-22A which allready has a generational advantage to begin with .. By the time we see AESA in the EF or rafale ( again integration as to my knowledge is not Govt funded atleast i 1 case) The f-22A will be using block 30 spiral ( if not well into its way into block 40 spiral) for which the USAF is well within its cap budget.

So hw do you explain the comments (and yes I mean assuming that they are true and not just more “the whole world hates America” comments) that the Typhoon is winning not all but most of the BVR engagements with the Raptor? If the Raptor is so good it should be winning all of them. Is this perhaps another example of European technology showing that it is not really so far behind the US?

Also explain how the Rap is so great if the Typhoon is half the price and will still win engagements with all the planes that the Raptor will ever have to fight?

Actually they do meet…for a while….

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-6118.html

Interesting views on the forum you have posted a link to. I guess we will only know how the F22 and Typhoon match up against each other after a few such meetings. But I have to say that as the F22 is a “5th Generation” and the Typhoon only a lowely “4th Generation” one things are looking pretty good for the Typhoon. To hear all the hype about the Raptor it should be winning ALL it’s BVR engagements with the Typhoon.

Anyway to a certain extent this is like two teen age boys bragging about how big their manhood is. The F22 and Typhoon are not very likely to come up against each other in real combat, not unless the US goes to war against Austria or SA! The RAF will never come up against one and I’d bet the Typhoon would win enaggements against any other fighter in the world. So the RAF has got a good deal, a fighter that will win any engagement it needs to without paying double for a plane that may win one it will never need to.

I bet that in a few years any advantage the F22 has due to it’s stealthy construction will be overtaken by advances in radar technology. So I’m not convinced that the US is really getting value for money.

….for what?

The Falklands garrision force will probably get the cut in the next defense review.

Of course, limited capabilty Tranche 1 and 2 Eurofighters could hypothetically replace the four plane Mount Pleasant flight. Logistics might be a nightmare for a new type operated in small numbers and relative isolation, and the limited fuel capacity of the Eurofighter might unduly risk the lives of the pilots.

The UK won’t pull out of the Falklands in my view. The reason is oil. The islands are surrounded by a hugh oil field. The only problem at the moment is that the sea is too deep and the oil too expensive to extract. But in a few years when oil becomes more scarce…

The UK is currently increasing the level of military infrastructure on the islands.