Green Light: Belgian Navy to get 2 new frigates and 6 new minehunters

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Thats one i made about 10 years ago (in 1/72), i also made a 1/144 version in recent years in the same scheme.

i also made a Belgian Eurofighter a while ago 🙂

or, if you Prefer a Super Hornet, i have a Belgian one to….

and a Canadian Superbug, CF-188E 🙂

and an RAF F-22K Raptor F.Mk.1

in Belgium, the worst aircraft deal ever, was that of Agusta A109 helicopters, they didnt fit the requirement the Belgian Army posted (they prefered the Bell 212).
but the main reason this deal was bad was due to a bribe scandal, witch caused the goverment of that time to fall.

IMHO, i think the Austrian EF Typhoon deal was one of the worst, the aircraft was to expensive, overcapable and overkill for the country, they should ahve went with the Gripen or secondhand F-16’s (or buy the ex-swiss F-5E/F’s they leased as a stop-gap.)

the RAF Nimrod R1 replacement deal (RC-135) is also, in my eyes, a waist of money. why replace an old aircraft with a platform thats just as old.
would have been cheaper and more sense to buy additional Sentinel R1’s.

another bad deal is the Romanian F-16AM/BM deal, just like the RAF RC135 deal, its replacing an old airframe (Mig-21 LanceR) with an airframse thats just as old, and in the progress of being phased out elsewhere while they are yet to recieve the first. secondhand Gripens or newer model F-16C/D’s (Block 40’s, witch the US was offering for free) would have made more sense.

Indian Air Force orders HAL to redesign HJT-36.

13 Years On, Desi IJT Back to Drawing Board

i dont see the sense in this, the HJT-36 is a lemon and a decade to late, why cant India just admit that the project is a failure, cancel the whole thing and buy new aircraft off the shelf? (M-345, PC-21, L-39NG or more BAe Hawk AJT’s)

i think it would be possible for Russia to build these ships, just take a look at how big the Kuznetsov and Liaoning (Ex-Varyag) are.
back in the 80’s and 90’s they were also builing a similar supercarrier, the Ulyanovsk (witch was 30% finished when the project was cancelled at the end of the cold war), it was in many aspects similar in specifications to project 23000E.

however, to build such a ship in Russia today would take a enormous drydock, something Russia does not have anymore, the 2 Kuznetzov-class carriers and the Ulyanovsk were built in the Ukraine, and seeing how the situation is now, its not likely they will built those there. besides, i dont think the Ukraine has those facilities and large drydocks anymore.

anyway, back on topic,

never judge the Naval T-50 by a model, afterall, the main focus there lies op the ship, not the aircraft on it.
as for a fixed wing AEW platform, they could well revive the Yak-44, witch was designed for operations on the Ulyanovsk supercarrier.

Belgium looking to buy 3 Airbus A330-MRTT refueling aircraft

in all honesty, i cant take our MoD serious anymore, earlier this month, there were plans to buy 40 new fighters, 3 new frigates and possibly new UAV’s and Apache helicopters.
and now refueling tankers? as a Belgian, i think for a small country like ours, i think this plan is a bit overkill for us!

Belgian Defence: Budget Cuts leaked

in a leaked report, plans include:

-further reducing the Agusta A109 fleet from the current 20 to just 8 helicopters.
-privatising the SAR mission currently flown by 3 (out of 5) Westland SeaKing Mk.48’s (to be retired in 2016, replaced by NH90-NFH)

i dont see the logic in the latter, why invest almost 200 milion euro’s on 4 NH90-NFH’s (3 already delivered, last one to be delivered this summer) and have no use for half of them?
the new helicopters are already here, the crews are already nearing the end of theyre conversion training, why close them down?

Belgium has made public the preperation survay for the F-16 replacement program (ACCSP or Air Combat Capablity Successor Program)
the allocated budget should be somewhere near 4 Billion Euro’s for the acuasition of about 40 aircraft.

at the moment, the Lockheed F-35A and Dassault rafale F3R are the prefered favorites.
other aircraft in the running are the SAAB JAS-39E/F Gripen-NG, Eurofighter Typhoon (tranche 3) and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (possibly Advanced SH version).

Ful document: Here