Interesting idea!

Also four or five of the FlyBE Dash-8s are in the new livery, with a dark purple fuselage and white tailcone. Underside of tailplanes remains white.

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Current rotation of U-2s through Fairford is roughly fortnightly. Another one arrived in from Beale yesterday. They take a northerly Atlantic route and then head south over western Scotland at ‘in excess’ of 60,000 ft. Descent into Fairford is quite rapid.

Glasgow has a good view, usually. Those in Liverpool should catch them contrailing at about 45,000 ft.

Perhaps the Scottish Defence Force will dig-out a few old Lightnings and dust-off the U-2 interception profile 😉

Forget fast air? …
So, who do you suggests patrols all that airspace? The RAF?

No-one. There is no realistic air threat to Scotland in the next 20 years. They need to provide MPA and SAR cover up to the Shetlands, nothing pointier than that in my opinion.

Anyhow, the RAF haven’t patrolled the GIUK in nearly two decades. They do occasional point-QRAs closer to the mainland.

Four V-22s followed by two Super Stallions (I think)

Good catch! That’s actually a Merlin ( you can see the BERP rotor tips,for instance ).

Mr Obama was in a VH-60 that slipped-out ahead of the Ospreys. He doesn’t travel in the tilt-rotors, those are reserved for press and security.

Correction: motorcade for POTUS. Security via the Ospreys.

I will never understand why EADS went after the same niche without any breakthrough in hand (stealth, VTOL or whatever)…

Do you mean the Transall? Although it was about the same size as the C-130, the Transall was a pure tactical airlifter more comparable in mission to the C-123; able to operate into short, soft strips out of bounds to the C-130.

The An-12 was probably the closest rival to the C-130’s mission but suffered from Antonov’s lack of consideration for proper full-cabin pressurization, which stemmed from a rushed rear-door design.

To be fair to Antonov, they did eventualy develop an excellent rear-ramp / platform / pressure-door design for the An-26 and subsequent, but never went back to rework the -12. But Lockheed did it right first-time.

Does the Indian Air Force need every transport aircraft to be tactically capable?

If not, an A330F will move the same payload as a C-17 at half the cost. A 777F will move 100 tonnes. Air India has a few 777LRs sitting looking for a buyer… same airframe as the freighter.

Focus the tactical assets where they are needed and move the bulk stuff on pallets. Just because the USAF lost the plot in the 1980s doesn’t mean every air force has to do logisitics like they do ( and they had to spend huge $$$ on leased pallet capacity in the 2000s ).

Why should the U.S. give Iran anything? The Iranian government hates the U.S. To them, we’re the “great satan”, why should we give them ANY help? That doesn’t make sense.

To the contrary, it makes a great deal of sense.

No nation ‘likes’ or ‘hates’ any other nation, any positive relations are based on mutual benefit. Internal PR ( ‘great Satan’, ‘axis of Evil’ et al ) has nothing to do with real politics.

Iran is assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces in fighting IS, which is a greater threat to US interests in the region, and globally, than Iran. Iran is the backstop that will prevent IS spreading eastwards and encircling Baghdad in a pincer, so Iran will be supported.

We in the West mock Iran for keeping 40-year-old F-5s flying with local ‘modifications’ and making rip-offs of Chinese copies of M16s, but today those weapons are what will check IS.

Apples to oranges. Iraq have a decent army capable of kicking out the insurgents with help from NATO air power.

The Iraqi army was operating under conditions of complete air dominance. Supporting air power could pick-off IS convoys at will – there are plenty of videos on YouTube of Mi-35s destroying technicals and supply vehicles without a single return shot being fired.

Thousands of tons of supplies have been fed quietly from Iran. Iranian officers are assisting the Iraqis in the field.

Yet the Iraqi army broke and fled any time they werer pushed. Why do you think they’d do any differently if there were stars-and-bars on the aircraft?

Unfortunately the Iraqi army has become a political play-thing for various factions in power. Capable officers have been removed because they don’t align with a particular sponsor’s tribalism – when Mr Hussein did that we tut-tutted and said he was a blinkered fool.