I know you get them on racks of three but what i meant was i’ve seen a picture with 2 on a triple rack a paveway and a targeting pod taking off.
I’m not sure if this is typical load out but it’s like the Apaches in Afghan, They carry eight hellfires but are normallly operating with 1 or 2 on the four rack launcher. I will find that picture somewhere.

Sorry could you clarify: A normal rack with only 2 brimstone, or a rack with 2 Brimstone and a Paveway?

kev 99 (battle of the planets?)

Yup

Are there any sources for results? I would have thought it was the perfect weapon for clearing compounds and the like…

after all the hellfire is the weapon of choice for Predators and Reapers isn’t it?

The story I mentioned above talked about 1 that went straight through a tiny compound window, don’t recall where I saw it now but it was the first combat firing of the new variant for non armoured targets.

I ignore the mainstream media completely when it comes to defence matters, they simply can’t get it right.

And I doubt the Tories will be as happy as you think with Dave in charge, pushing his party ever closer to the centre to the point where Labour and the Tories only differ on fox hunting and hooded youths. Neither party will have the balls for it any more, especially since neither side has any semblance of a strong leader (Dave, Gordon/whoever replaces him). Say what you like about Blair, when he wanted something done, he did it.

I see where you’re coming from but most people wouldn’t of thought John Major to be a particularly strong leader in 1991.

To be honest we won’t know if Dave is as middle ground as he makes out until he’s been in office for a few years, I suspect he’s not, he’s already made lots of noises about getting people off benefits and being assessed to see what, if any work those on incapacity benefit are capable of.

Could it merely be a case of the press attacking the governement or the industry (in order to secure money from ads)? I mean being ignorant is one thing. Having an agenda is another, more possible IMHO. I find it hard to accept that both columnists in two major british newspapers are moronos/ignorant.

The Times is a traditionally Conservative paper (currently opposition party), they originally ran the one carrier/other converted to an LPH story. It was full of factional inaccuracies because as a STOVL carrier there is not much difference between one and an LPH anyway, no ski ramp/blast shield and job done, which would save next to nothing, and they were always supposed to be swing role designs anyway. Anyone that had followed they project in any shape or form could of told them this. At best the article is very poorly research or at worst deliberately misleading.

The Guardian is a very left wing newspaper, I would expect much of their readership would be quite happy for the UK Government to be spending much less on the armed forces.

The British press is very, very poor at reporting on Defence matters so the moron factor is very relevant, the Times and Guardian are otherwise quality newspapers but for defence matters; next to useless.

Yes I read that, same old situation with the Guardian, there probably isn’t much interest amongst their readership so no real need for accuracy, so usual Guardian lack of attention to detail and doom laden messages for the UK armed forces.

The difference being that Javelin is a guided weapon that’ll do the job in one nice clean shot, making sure the Taliban don’t put down their guns (ROE’s are a bitch) away to plant IEDs somewhere else. On top of that the range of the Javelin has come in useful apparently. I’ve certainly heard of instances where the entire plan has hinged on using the Javelins in this way (specific example being one of Michael Yon’s reports from Iraq back in 2007).

There simply isn’t a proper alternative at the moment, but I agree it is a pricey way of doing things. They really should be working on a cheaper version that doesn’t need all of Javelin’s capabilities, maybe they can make it cheaper if they cut out the anti-tank stuff and go straight for anti-personnel (without losing the guided ability or the range). What would really be useful at this point would be a smaller anti-personnel missile that can be used in place of the AT missile on the Javelin system.

/pipe dreams.

There is a new cheaper and lighter alternative to Javelin being introduced, can’t remember what its called, was in Desider a couple of months ago, don’t really know when its due to enter service though.

Cavour is not a real carrier. When I hear the word carrier, the first image that comes in my mind is that of USS Nimitz and the likes with at least catapult ability. The Cavour is a multi role sea platform, capable of a variety of roles that would require a seperate ship for each in another larger navy. The same goes for Juan Carlos I. Italy or Spain could never afford a real carrier. The solution they picked is ideal: They get a floating hospital, a large transport, a helicopter carrier, an amfibious assault ship, a command ship, plus some *aircraft carrier* ability with a tiny air wing of a few VTOL fighters.

Built to operate fixed wing aircraft even if they are only of the STOVL variety; Cavour is definitely an aircraft carrier, I don’t recall reading anyway that an aircraft carrier has to have a catapult installed, does this mean the Kuznetsov is not an aircraft carrier?

As for your last question, the answer is pretty obvious: Either second hand AV-8s (obviously it would be part of the deal) or, in the future, F-35Bs, if a slightly newer but still second hand LHD was acquired, such as a Wasp.

Except nobody else seems interested in selling them.

Agreed. You said it mate, two ships, not two aircraft carriers. 😉

I think the Royal Navy gets to call its new “ships” aircraft carriers if it wants to, after all they invented them in the first place.

Navy surrenders one new aircraft carrier in budget battle – Times

That article has since been blown out of the water repeatedly by Defence ministers and ranking officers in the Royal Navy, meanwhile the orders have continued for 2 sets of everything.

BTW, I read at one of the other threads I cited that the UK was actually interested for two Tarawa LHAs a few years ago when they were searching for an Invincible class replacement. This proves that they is interest, the very least. UK ended up with the CVFs, but it may not work out after all, though they are far better ships in any respect, except for amphibian abilities.

Best regards.

The UK was offered ex US ships as replacements for Ocean (an LHP), this has since been dismissed for the same reasons that Swerve has already stated, no real indication anyway that it was ever given serious thought.

Where ya gonna put the internal weapons bays? 😉

Since the super Harrier concept came from the the 1980s I doubt there was any need seen for them.