France is putting up 50% of the money for Neuron, & AFAIK the other partners accept that buys leadership. That’s unusual for European multinational projects, & is probably a good thing.

I think bilateral projects can work OK as 50:50 partnerships, if both sides are committed to them, but as soon as you get into three or more relatively equal partners, things start fouling up. Better to have, e.g., three separate projects, with country A leading no. 1, B leading no. 2, & C leading no.3, & with no country having a competing national project.

Absolutely agree, its important to have a leader on any project, anything that is run by a committee usually ends up as a compromise, and nobody really wants that.

I would suggest codeone mag revise his article, the switch from B to C variant does not mean the Queen Elizabeth class will get steam catapuilts at all, there is a very good chance they will be electromagnetic.

Is it me or is that boat jinxed?

It’s starting to look that way.

I very much doubt we would have had such nonsensical strategic cuts had Labour remained in power.

Funny, but with the noises the Labour Government had been making over the last 5 years I’d say they would have been just as bad, they’ve been slashing everything to fight in Afganistan for years, or worse; encouraging the MOD to order stuff they haven’t got the budget to pay for.

Let’s not forget that Labour defence plans have been based on a 13 year old document that was never funded properly in the first place.

I also like NSM, nice sneaky weapon – in the Penguin class. A 125kg warhead isn’t really what I’d be looking for as a big ship missile (Compare: Klub up to 400kg!). Wonder if NSM fits into Sylver VLS. Exocet III does.

I’ve wondered the same thing.

Why not study an A400M MPA variant.

You have already asked this question and been given a perfectly reasonable answer by more than one person.

Because we didn’t buy MK41 VLS, even if we did we would have to buy more Tomahawks, we really keep a large enough inventory for our surface forces to use them as well as our boats.

Seems like a real **** up, the navy gets most of its teeth pulled and the RAF won’t be doing ASW anymore.