Right,”mature hat” back on.

BAE have done a lot of work on flexible solutions to the VLO unmanned question though haven’t they, so we aren’t starting from scratch.

Regarding my statement above, Telemos was really supposed to be a MALE UAV, I’ve never seen anything about it being able to operate in contested airspace, are we trying to rival the USN’s UCLASS programme for scope? That quote about contested airspace all sounds a bit mission creep to say the least.

-The U.S Navy’s unmanned carrier launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) program has evolved to call for a jet that is much larger and much more capable than what was envisioned just six months ago, Navy officials told USNI News.

“We’re talking about a 70,000- to 80,000-pound airplane,” Rear Adm. Mike Manazir, the Navy’s director of air warfare said in a 20 December interview. “We’re talking [Grumman F-14] Tomcat size.”

http://news.usni.org/2013/12/23/navy-uclass-will-stealthy-tomcat-size

That sounds ambitious and horrifically expensive.

What has Vikramaditya to do with Indian preference for STOBAR? Vikrant is also going to be STOBAR because of Vikramaditya? Is QE holding back the RN locking them into STOBAR? Are the rest of the Navies, including USN, who are going to use STOBAR with F-35, held back? What does a “flashier” fighter mean? Are you saying that MiG is no better than SHAR and worse than F-35 or they are all equally bad? What prevents using MiG-29 with CATOBAR, if that would have been the preference of the Indian Navy?

QE isn’t STOBAR and the USN isn’t using STOBAR either.

when looking around I have seen seaRAM was tested on HMS York dose anyone know if this system is up and running or has gone by the wayside as it seems to me that if the MHPC where fitted for Phalanx/searam on top of the hangar and say the navy got 6 systems for the 16 ships it could be away of up gunning a ship if sent in to medium threat duties

We didn’t buy it, RN either weren’t sufficiently impressed by it or decided that it wasn’t worth sacrificing money committed elsewhere.

It replaces the Nimrod R1.

I’d guess at the BAe 90 metre OPV design, shown on their website.

I’d put money on it, it would be a shame though because it would mean they won’t have a hanger or the legs that would enable the chance to free up some taskings from the escort fleet.

These ships should be built with the mind set that they will be the first of the MHCP class of ships with six ships ordered with 3 being built in Portsmouth as well as the 3 in the Clyde

Portsmouth is not going to be building warships anymore, it will only be a maintenance and repair facility, they will all be built on the Clyde, announced as of yesterday. These ships are stop gaps in the order books of BAE, as such they need to be either almost complete or completed designs, so no chance for them to have anything to do with the as of yet undesigned MHCP class.

But if we were seriously looking for replacements for either of those right now we could have just converted Largs Bay instead of flogging her off to save a few quid.