How many of those 86,000 are working at RN bases repairing ships and maintaining the weapons and ammunition?

How many of those 86,000 are working on RAF bases doing the same things?

Same question for the army.

I don’t know, that’s why I am asking. The MoD refuses to make this clear in their reports, they roll everything up into “Delivering Defence Capability“.

I have gone through the 2008 and 2009 accounts. It tells me the salary for every senior staff officer and how many shares the MoD holds in QinetiQ and the Met Office, and how much was written-off on service contract changes, but not what those civilian staff are doing.

Blue Kingdom sends it’s SSNs to positions within TLAM range of REDina’s major cities, infrastructure and military assets and starts knocking them out one by one until REDina withdraws its forces and grovels for mercy.

The UK *cough* Blue Kingdom originally procured 65 TLAMs and fired-off an “undisclosed number” into Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq ( note: all joint ops with US consent ).

An additional 64 were delivered from 2008 onwards.

Say 100 remaining. Say, for argument, all were deployed towards Redina.

2% launch failure rate seems average for TLAM, so 98 fly.

Hit rate in Desert Storm was about 84% of launches, so let’s be generous and say the IAD is in similar disarray and 82 TLAMs strike-home. That’s one-third of the 242 TLAM hits during Desert Storm, and one-third of 238 TLAMs fired by US forces during Allied Force.

Is that enough to crush Redina, without any supporting air campaign?

What happens next? Will the USA replenish stocks after the UN Security Council reaches deadlock? Will the USA even allow those 98 birds to fly?

What dimensions are you comparing?

Mi-8 vs S-70

Fuselage lengths are 59 ft 7 in versus 50 ft 0.75 in
Length rotors-turning 82 ft 9 in versus 64 ft 10 ins

See also this link for scale

One consideration that is often missed in the “Mi-8 v S-70” debates is that the former has an usable cabin height, 5 ft 11 in which allows troops to move around and generally perform useful tasks. The S-70s 4 ft 6 in cabin height requires shuffling around on knees or squatting on bums.

A more direct counterpart for the S-70 in terms of cabin volume and payload is the Ka-29.

Unless you can provide a real picture of a Hind carrying AA-8 on its dedicated rail (not upside down on ATGM specific rails) we’ve got nothing to talk about.

Not everything is on the internet.

Check-out the Mi-24 article by Gordon and Komissarov in WAPJ 37.

They provide a good deal of information about the R-60 installation on the Mi-24 including problems with seeker lock-on over the hot Central Asian steppes.

Eric Waugh in “Wings as Eagles” notes that the Muj had a habit of firing Shorts Blowpipes in volleys of three or four at a single target, much in the manner of their anti-helicopter RPG ambushes but with a more potent projectile.

Having had a couple of attempts to guide that beast in the simulator back in the late 1980s I don’t blame them; you needed remarkable perception and nerves of steel to stand there and fly a CLOS missile all the way in.

The never had many of the Blowpipe ( rumour was that they were “lost” after delivery to Nigeria ). The volley firing didn’t do anything for the sales people’s Pk claims either!

Oh AFM I don`t know when you become a comics magazine

Well I couldn’t possibly comment, but I did stop buying it sometime back around 1997…

For my birthday around the age of nine or ten I received a book entitled “Air Forces of the World” by Hickman, Sweetman, Wheeler and Gunston. It was first published in 1979.

I learned more about global geo-politics from that book than any Geography text-book up to and including A-level.

Even today if I want to learn about the formation and history of air forces / air corps / naval wings I first look in this tired old book. It still raises six quid for a used copy on Amazon and, best of all, there are no pictures of Spitfires 🙂

Just opened it at a random page and read that the RAF based Shackletons at Majunga during the oil embargo on Beira, flying alongside Madagascan Skyraiders. Evocative stuff.

Man, where would bombers going to bombard Belfast come? From the Atlantic? They’d come from the East, and Leuchars is in the perfect position to intercept anything coming from that direction.

Swinging down from the North Sea.

There was actually a proposal for an early-warning Type 80 Mk 2 radar installation at Uig to cover the northern gap but only the more easterly one in Saxa Vord was built.

Killard Point ( Bishop’s Court ) near Downpatrick was originally built as a GCI station, so at least some action was anticipated over our little province.

Addendum: also for historical note, recall the three Luftwaffe raids on Belfast, Bangor and Newtownards. Those sneaky Germans just flew up the Irish Sea from France! Curse their lack of sportsmanship!

Anyway, direct conventional attack on the UK is now seen only as a Tier 3 risk, so those bombers might not be the threat against which the Typhoons are defending most of the UK.

For the life of me i cant understand why the Mossie wasnt used instead of the heavies, even if it was for area bombing.

Or tens of thousands of disposable Miles Hoop-La drones for area targets and a force of Mosquitoes for precision attacks.

General le May never liked the B-58 because it wasn’t “big” enough for SAC ( “It didn’t fit my ass” ). Was there a similar mindset in Bomber Command?