A recent Parliamentary Answer had a rather surprising ommission
Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the remaining (a) establishment and (b) structure of the Fleet Air Arm is in terms of (i) manpower and (ii) aircraft.
Nick Harvey (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Defence; North Devon, Liberal Democrat)
After implementing the decisions taken in the strategic defence and security review, the Fleet Air Arm will operate the following helicopters:
30 anti-submarine Warfare Merlins;
28 Maritime Wildcats;
25 Commando Merlins; and
6 Battlefield Wildcats.
In addition, some second line aircraft will be used for training purposes. It will employ 1,179 officers and 3,186 ratings.
The Fleet Air Arm remains the Ministry of Defence’s Maritime Aircraft Operating Authority and is a joint partner in the Joint Combat Aircraft programme.
Anyone see where a Sea King ASaC Mk.7 replacement will fit into this, it’s not like we have already spent millions on ‘feasibility studies’ is it.
It has been assumed by many, including me, that the Sea Kings would go out of service in 2016 to coincide with SAR-H (oh dear), the Merlin conversions being available and the systems transferred into the ‘spare’ Merlin HM.1 airframes.
Perhaps it is just an omission and everything will be OK (anyone convinced)
Is 28 Maritime Wildcats too much given their role and number of surface combatants likely to be in the future Royal Navy?
This would also seem to confirm that the FAA will be getting those RAF Merlin’s after all, when they have been converted to a maritime capability they should have always had, or, the tooth fairy will deliver 25 Commando Merlin’s fresh from the manufacturer!
It also looks like 847 Naval Air Squadron will be equipped with a total of 6 Battlefield Wildcat helicopters.
In an interview last december the commander officer of Commando Helicopter Force said that 4 out of the 28 navy Wildcats would be in “Army Scout” variant and replace the current 6 Lynx AH7 used by 847° (AH9 now that they are out in Stan).
So it would be 24 Navy Wildcats and 4 Commando Wildcats, out of the 28 helicopters ordered.
http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/rotorhub/heli-power-2010-chf-commander-reveals-challenges-ahead/7739/
The 6 Wildcats figure given in this answer thus fits as much as the total absence of MASC: it is probably an error.
The Navy is due to receive 28 Wildcats, the Army 34. Unless 6 of the 34 Army helos are actually going to the Navy and no one has yet announced it, or this report is a total mess.
MASC is probably temporarily (hopefully only temporarily!) dead. Hopefully, it will resurrect (very possibly with another name so some more “studying” money can be wasted) in 2015/16, and take a look at leasing a bunch of Hawkweye from the US, to use in collaboration with the french.
In 2001, the UK was about to sign a 1 billion deal for 6 Hawkeye E2D, (4 aircrafts “frontline” and 2 as a OCU/OEU/Spare squadron) but the plan ditched because “we’d have to install catapults on the carriers”. Now that the problem is gone, it would hardly make sense to spend hundreds of millions on converting Merlins when, with roughly the same amount of money, the RN could get proper Hawkeyes.
The French do with 3 airframes.
The RN surely would do just as good with 3 of its own… and training could be done with both French and US. It might end up costing less than Merlin when all things play in.
Also because the Navy is still hoping (not much, but a little bit, in the deep…) to get the chance to upgrade the 8 Merlin HM1 left as well: with the loss of Nimrod, everyone now wants the Merlin to be everywhere, and 30 airframes won’t do.
http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/rotorhub/heavy-demand-for-royal-navy-merlins/8093/
With catapults on carriers, MASC makes not a lick of sense.
Hopefully, we’ll just buy whatever every other bugger uses.
Is it reasonable to assume that the cost of converting the RAF’s Merlins to FAA standards will be “unaffordable” like the West Indies guard ship and so the Commando Merlins will remain shore-based? A good story to feed the “defence” correspondents is that as no Royal Marine operations since 2003 have required ship-to-shore deployment the requirement to operate from ships is a luxury that cannot be justified.
Won’t some of the Maritime Wildcats be needed as Admirals’ Barges?
Good timing on this article, I’ve got pre-AIB interview on Friday (observer) and was finding it hard to find out exactly how many airframes the FAA will be operating. Does anyone know a website where there is a definitive list of Royal Navy ships with definite decomissioning dates.
Cheers,
Alex
MASC represents part of the death of ISTAR post 2015 – no sentinel, no AEW or MASC, no Nimrod etc – we’ve utterly gutted our hard won ISTAR capability.
FWIW, my understanding is that the likely solution will be some spare Merlin cabs fitted with searchwater – although it wont be a perfect solution.
@ Gabriele:
“In 2001, the UK was about to sign a 1 billion deal for 6 Hawkeye E2D, (4 aircrafts “frontline” and 2 as a OCU/OEU/Spare squadron) but the plan ditched because “we’d have to install catapults on the carriers”.”
You mean – they only realised this at the last moment?
Why I am not surprised?
Perhaps Not mentioned as we are not going to have any…perhaps becuase we are not going to have any carriers.
I forget what the current flying lashup is, but are we not supposed to be getting a fixed wing carrier untill 2020, so we wont need any until then. 9-10 years away.
If we need them some tiffy will take a hacksaw to a Merlin while his mate pops down to Maplin for some solder, wire and other bits. They will then coble something together using an office chair, a bin bag, a boom box, and the magnetron out of the Naafi microwave.
I don’t think it is an omission. I think it is a hidden cut.
The 28 exRAF Merlin HC/3/a are ti be transferred to the FAA/RM. Apparently folding blades will be sufficient for the RN. Personally, I think it would make more sense to give these for SAR and get new builds that match what the RM require.
The benefits are many:
RM gets the helicopter it really needs
We save 6billion going on another awful PFI
We keep the SAR helicopter British and standard with the military(benefits of spares, crew and supports uk jobs not American or Canadian
We get a much better SAR helicopter
@tony williams
Well, One of the options was to fit the carrier with arresting gear only. The Hawkwye was demonstrated taking off from a sky jump, without catapult…
But:
1- it would still obviously not make sense to have arresting gear ONLY for the Hawkeye on an otherwise STOVL carrier
2- the Hawkeye in theory can take off without catapult, but the risks are many, serious, and the compromises too high.
Now there will be cats and traps anyway, so it would just make a lot of sense to get Hawkeye.
Seriously, the MOD “studies” at times come up with embarassing ideas. Ideas that cost MILLIONS and give back nothing.
Most of the pre-main gate work on MOD projects should be cut, really.
Look at the navy: it had asked originally 66 Merlins, to replace all the Lynx (no Navy Wildcat) and Sea Kings (save perhaps SAR). Had the MOD/government listened and bought them, instead of coming up with spread-out half-solutions and spending the money in “studies”, the problem would not even exist and the Fleet Air Arm would have a single main type of helo in service. The most capable, besides.
@Phil Darley
Now that is an idea i do love. The SAR would be fixed, would remain a military capability, and the Merlin HC3 could still be used in theatre of war if really needed, while covering SAR in peacetime.
25 new build AW101 HC3+ would suit the Navy awesomely… And considering all factors, it might save money in the end.
And that’s why it’ll probably never happen…
Hasn’t the SAR PFI being cancelled this morning?
The lack of mention could be a sign that MaSC will be retired without replacement, or replaced by a RAF only aircraft, especially as they are nice and vague over FAA pilots and JSA, suggesting that the FAA might end up with no fixed wing aircraft.
While it is likely a mistake on the figures of Wildcats, could it mean something else? As I am a master of wild speculation, could it mean that someone has worked out that Wildcat is pointless for the Army, and they will give the Wildcat’s to the Navy, and the total of 34 Wildcat’s is the minimum number we can get away with ordering without penalties? (Now I am off to dream about AAC getting Lakota’s in light utility and scout roles and Black Hawk’s)
How are we gonna be able to afford the E2? As much as I’d like to see them take some of the stress off the RAF’s E3′s shoulders, I cant see us buying into yet another airframe when we also have to buy the F35C, soon after getting a wholley new carrier and procedures online…a new stealth fighter that the UK forces have never had nor operated before (as a whole, not the exchange peeps). When that carrier comes, there is gonna be a whole load of new things coming online nearly at once….whatever the ship bourne AEW will be, F-35C, deck handling, Commando Merlins, new weapon systems and handling procedures and trials… loads of things we’ll need to hand over to OEU’s to figure out how to use them and what the procuedures will be… Then again, it’d play nicely into the ‘it’ll give us commonality with the french/USN’… lol its all one great big mess, seems both the RAF and RN are tied up with all these future plans… like somehow the money will re-appear again.
Add on all the other big things we have planned; UCAV’s, Type 23, FRES, the SAR-H… its crazy.
It is literally this government shafting it on along to the next.
X;
Yes indeed, seems the seakings continue to do their sterling service in RAF yellow and RN dayglow for a few more years yet.
Perhaps it was a minor error not to include the baggers ASaC7… they do good work in afgan, but maybe they too will go ‘when we pull out’?
Hi,
I read this Jan 14 piece in Shephard ” the introduction of the Merlin Mk2 presents a new challenge. Not only must the Merlin force introduce a new type, but it will also oversee a reduction in numbers from the current 38 Mk1s to 30 Mk2s.” and a piece in another publication which I know forget, but which said
- the ASW upgrade contract for 30
- and an option for 8 more
as
- not being sure how much of the kit from the airframes now in A-stan will come back,
- and how many Merlins will be lost in accidents etc over the next 5? years
This sort of optionality & recycling of perfectly good kit makes sense to me (especially if you don’t know whether you will have to have the numbers to cover 1-2 carriers and 0-1 LOGs).There are not even enough facts to infer that 1.5 is the expected number?
- for sure, 4 is not big enough a number for a type (like a scout helicopter per a Commando and one you can take – from how far away! – to do maintenance on)
If anyone remembers the world helicopter fleet numbers by country, which I pasted in, the Army helicopter fleet has a skew towards observer/ scout types and can afford to lose some to be closer to the “accepted” balance
No carriers til 2020 (if at all….)
No need for “overland” mission in the Sandbox
= “capability holiday” until 2020 – in other words expect AEW / AWaC to go the same route as the Sentinel…..
That being said we can always fantasize (again) – Mike asked: “How are we gonna be able to afford the E2?” – easy retire the E3. No Soviet air threat to the homeland, must be cheaper to run smaller, twin turboprop than 4 engined jet with bigger crew…… etc etc
@ Jed
As I am fond of saying; we may be lucky and war may break out.
Not for the first time I join the debate after its well under way….
My penny’s worth:
Nick Harvey said 25 Merlins would be Commando Merlins, the HC.3/3a’s total 28, a slight anomaly? Does this mean that the couple (several?) that the crabs have dented to date in Afghanistan and the USA will be stripped of spares or used as training aids? And will it be asking too much to give the HC.3/3a’s a folding tail as part of their conversion or is this part of the plan?
As for the Wildcats, traditionally the AAC have provided the Lynx for the RM, I guessing than that the Commando Wildcats will come from the AAC order.
Not really a story, with the carriers becoming conventional a complete review of assets will be underway.
Love Phil’s Idea of using the 28 RAF merlins for SAR and getting new ones for the navy, 2 headaches with but one asprin
I like Phils idea but only half of it, getting rid of the Merlins to the Coastguard so the Commando Helicopter Force can have itself a proper maritime capable heavy lift helicopter, CH53K
One can but dream!
I’m noticing that several people here is actually asking if the Sea King ASaC will go without immediate replacement.
The answer is definitely yes: it has already been announced more than once that the WHOLE Sea King fleet is to be retired by 2016, with the MK7 going as soon as it is not needed in Stan. The SAR was going to be replaced first, by 2014 (now it is a big question mark) and the Commando HC4 will be gone by 2016, with a probable gap before the transfer of the Merlins is effective.
The MK7 will likely be retired by 2015.
The point is: MASC was not dropped, and the requirement still stands. Until the programme is not abandoned, one can but hope. Anyway, pretty much for sure, we are definitely talking about a 2020 date for a new AEW platform entering service. That is for sure.
Morning Gabriele,
I think the establishment quoted by Nick Harvey is the force in 2020, so if the FAA are getting a MaSC replacement it will not be available until after 2020.
With regard to Sea Kings, then can I suggest a possible alternative scenario based on two bits of information very much in the public domain, that the RAF does not want to give up it’s Merlin’s and with SAR-H being binned that at the very least basic life extension is going to be required. How about instead of upgrading Puma and marinising the Merlin’s, they instead leave the Merlin where they are, cancel the Puma upgrade, and upgrade the entire Sea King fleet with new GE engines, Carson blades, new Lockhead Martin tail rotors, and glass cockpit’s. Then your Sea King’s are good until 2024 – 2025ish, pushing the decision on what they are going to do into the long grass.
Can I also ask an open question to anyone who knows the answer, how many new Merlin’s could be brought for the price of 12 new Chinook’s?
@Tubby
Morning to you,
Believe me, I’m the greatest advocate on Earth for cancelling the Puma upgrade and retire the Puma fleet in exchange for better-aimed investments in the helicopters fleet. That is 300+ millions of upgrade money plus savings from closing down the fleet, to re-invest in new choppers or Sea King upgrades.
300 million pounds could fund a few new Merlins for the Navy. India is said to pay 560 million euro for 12 VIP-transport Merlin helos. Utility helos should cost less, and anyway the indian order is made costly by their need to start an helicopter line anew, with training, spares and such. The UK would not need such effort for obvious reasons. A realistic cost for Merlin is around 25 million dollars each, i think. The RAF could keep its HC3, the Sea King ASaC will still be retired by 2016, and the SAR covered most likely by a revised PFI initiative. The armed forces urgently need HC4 replacements, or they will face a massive gap in helicopter mobility.
The MASC is arguably a lot less urgent… while painful to lose, the UK can do without it until the carrier is in service. On land, there are going to be drones to cover the role, especially with the Reaper fleet going up to 10 and, in future, with Scavenger (BAe Mantis, i hope).
I swear the rationale of the Puma upgrade is still a mystery to me. I never did get WHY the UK would want to do that at all.
A new upgrade of the Sea King is not very likely: the Sea King is being retired all around the world, and getting certain spare parts is growing more and more expensive and complex.
A Merlin-based fleet, instead, has many, many years of future ahead, and makes better sense.
richard, AAC haven’t been with the RM lynx/gazelle for years, all the army guys at 847 NAS were posted out in the 90′s RM had provided their own pilots for ages and if i’m not mistaken they in turn were then made officers in the RN some years later. I remember working with a sgt RM pilot who was given the choice of try for commission in RN or transfer as a sgt to AAC.
I believe that after that all lynxs had the army wording changed on the tail ie they became RN property, who knows though JHF is a strange fish!!!
@ Gabriele,
I totally believe that you do not think the Puma upgrade makes any sense. Based on your style of writing I suspect that we have debated this very issue on Key Publishing Forum before, both of us using different names.
Anyway I am not going to argue with you, I think it is silly to life extend the Puma, and using the money for new helicopters would be better, however 12 new Merlin’s is unlikely to be enough helicopters for the CHF, you would likely need to also cancel the Chinook buy and channel the funding into extra Merlin’s for the CHF as well.
To give you an idea why I think they might upgrade the Sea Kings, it was reported in August of last year in the Daily Express that Westland proposed a deep upgrade of the SAR Sea King’s to keep them going until the middle of the next decade, and I have also see talk on a number of forum’s that options are being studied to do the same for MaSC. If they keep SAR Sea King’s and MaSC it seems logical to build on the upgrades already given to CHF’s Sea King’s to extend their service lives even further (such as replacing their RR Gnome engines with GE engines like Carson have done). We can then buy up old Sea King’s for spares.
@ Gabrielle
I look at AEW a different way. I think without the fast fixed to push out the defensive (in hard kill terms)envelope we probably need it more. 3 or 4 30k tonners with 8 ASW, 8 AEW would still be potent for sea control in a world with few real carriers.
(As long as the ASW Merlin could carry an ASM; which clown at the MoD decided we didn’t need that capability? Probably the same clown who decided the Rivers didn’t need flight decks. Or the Astutes good have benefited from 12VLS tubes.)
Gabriele said: “On land, there are going to be drones to cover the role, especially with the Reaper fleet going up to 10 and, in future, with Scavenger” – what has this got to do with a very large radar, with both airborne early warning and ground surveillance modes ? Mini-SAR’s on Reapers are not providing the same wide area capability, and as far as I know there is not a ‘drone’ in the world equipped for AEW.
PaulG – I don’t believe it has anything to do with respect to manning of the RM helo capability, or crewing. It’s about the type of helo and who “owned” it. 847/3BAS Lynx’s were / are “army” models – they may not have Army painted on the tail boom but they are Lynx Mk7 from the AAC fleet. One might presume a similar arrangement would be made with WildCat if they are being equipped differently for each role (Army scout versus maritime).
Maybe they just don’t count a special ASaC version of Merlin because of the palettised nature of the proposed solution?
Or they just looked at the specifications and found out, that the helo-solution is simply to slow and shortlegged to provide much improved detection range over the T45s of the CVBG.
The E-2 would certainly remedy this, but I highly doubt there will be a buy. The next century will see the UKs armed forces experimenting with various unmanned solutions for a wide range of tasks, ASaC being one of them.
My bet: starting 2015, ISTAR-roles will be more and more be taken over by Mantis-derivates. A podded approach or conformal AEW seems pretty applicable to that beast. And btw, it could be worth to investigate an ASW-version…
The next logical step would be to navalize Mantis… folding wings, maybe a bit more power (can’t be bad on land either), flight control update. Replacing the Mantis with a VTOL-UAV-solution may be an even better, more flexible solution.
And finally, someone will find out that this navalized variant can carry Meteor, Asraam/CAMM and a lot of other weaponry. Bye, bye, FAA F-35! Hello, affordable unmanned air battle network.
McZ said “Or they just looked at the specifications and found out, that the helo-solution is simply to slow and shortlegged to provide much improved detection range over the T45s of the CVBG.”
Merlin can do up to 160kts top speed and will cruise happily at 120kts and CVBG will only be doing at best 30kts.
The Sentru will need replacing at about the same time as CVF comes on line. A common airframe (Hawkeye) makes sense for the RAF/FAA.
Yes I know Mod and sense will never happen
It also occurs to me that we could be looking at creating unique UK product if we are going to try to capitalise on the investment we have already made in Searchwater.
Given that EMALS/EMCAT can be reconfigured to launch different type of aircraft, and in theory it should be possible to covert short field turbo-props to operate of a carrier, could we be looking at converting a twin engine turbo-prop (like the Britten-Allen Defender) and installing Searchwater in a canoe fairing under the hull, with Cerebus work station in the passenger section?
Tubby – canoe fairing only works if your only interested in “side looking” surface (land / sea) surveillance. You would need to invest in a new active electronically scanned phased array antenna, which is why current AEW Searchwater is in a large dome and rotated physically through 360 degs.
@ Tubby
Probably we truly do have discussed on Key Publishing indeed…! I’m the feared/hated Liger30, and i might have an idea of who you are too. I keep having my doubts on the feasibility of a huge upgrade/reconstruction of Sea Kings, but i’m not at all opposed to it, if it proves to be a viable and economically-effective option. I’m not in the conditions of judging with any realistic hope of being right about that aspect, so i try and be careful, either position i do take.
@ X
you say “I look at AEW a different way. I think without the fast fixed to push out the defensive (in hard kill terms)envelope we probably need it more.”
And i do agree.
But is an AEW platform at sea seen as more necessary than four frigates Type 22…? No. At a time of cuts like this, with no carriers to fly them from, MASC platforms are not a solid enough requirement. I just hope the Navy is not left without them from 2020 onwards… And i honestly hope the Hawkeye solution is chosen by then, because any other option will pretty much born already “ancient” and considerably limited in providing effective early warning. Have you seen that not just China, but IRAN too has a Ballistic Anti Ship Missile…? Now that was unexpected.
This kind of game-changers menaces are what make a AEW solution at sea indispensable.
In an ideal world the UK would fly E2D off the carrier, linked with CEC to the escorting Type 45, and there would be a “special” squadron of Merlin AEW to act as Special Forces’s mini AWACS and to be embarked on Type 45s to extend their effectiveness.
In the real world, if the UK buys/leases 3 Hawkeye by 2021, i’ll make jumps of joy up to the ceiling.
@ Jed
You say: “On land, there are going to be drones to cover the role, especially with the Reaper fleet going up to 10 and, in future, with Scavenger” – what has this got to do with a very large radar, with both airborne early warning and ground surveillance modes ? Mini-SAR’s on Reapers are not providing the same wide area capability, and as far as I know there is not a ‘drone’ in the world equipped for AEW.”
On the wide area coverage, i’m not that sure. I think drones have possibly a better radar coverage. Watchkeeper is probably going to have far better ground-mode detection performances.
You are right on the AEW part… but i’m pretty sure a AEW drone could actually be arranged.
And, anyway, for the budget problems we all know, the AEW capability will not be prioritary. It is as simple as that. No matter how we bitch about it, it is not going to change. Based on requirements, we’d still have the Type 22s too.
Instead, we might lose a Type 23 and a further tanker in March, once the PR11 comes out.
I’m praying with all my forces for the PR11 not to be a massacre, sincerely.
Thanks Jed, I guess it would end up be a rotating random positioned above the aircraft then !
I did see a picture last year of a more advanced design for the MASC version of the Merlin with a distributed arrays over the hull, incorporating a AESA radar which I assume could also be applied to turbo prop.
@Liger 30,
I thought it was you. As you may have guessed I go by nocutstoRAF on Key Publishing!
Admin I think that introducing another type, especially one as expensive as the CH53K is a complete non-starter. Standardising on Merlin makes more sense. What I would like to see is Chinook fitted with 4-bladed folding rotors so that could be easier deployed on our amphibs/carriers. Yes I know Albion and Bay don’t have hangers. They should be fitted asap.
We also need to order a proper LPHD to replace Ocean. A bigger mistral class would do.
I too am not sure about the puma or seaking updates either. I would like to see Merlin replacing tge Seaking, afterall that what us was designed for!!! For Puma I would go fit aw149. This should have been selected over wildcats too!
With regard AEWit has to be Hawkeye, maybe jointly operated with the French.
@ Gabby
Yes I was guilty of think purely in terms of what good fly of the flat-tops. And I concur hulls in the water are important; well done MoD(N) for selling off those T23s. (Even though I am fond of the B3 T22s……)
And I concur about Hawkeye too. I think I have said here or over at New Wars that if I had been responsible for CVF I would have built it around Hawkeye and not the fighter.
As for Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles well I have a lot of confidence in AEGIS’s ABM capabilities. Oh I forget we didn’t buy AEGIS……..
I would like to see Dong-Feng 21 working.
@ Phil Darley
Have a google for Enforcer 30000 LHD. Personally I’d try to sell Ocean, Bulwark and Albion and replace them with 3 of the above.
I also think Hawkeye is the way to go post 2015 possibly with joint deal with the french. Though saying that my basic carrier air wing would have, 2x 8 plane fast jet squadrons, 3x E2-D’s, 2x ships flight merlins, 3x ASW merlins. But thats not gonna happen any time soon. We can but dream!
Hi Phil @ 7:05,
RE “Yes I know Albion and Bay don’t have hangers. They should be fitted asap.
We also need to order a proper LPHD to replace Ocean”
As we can see from that, sending an amphibious task force anywhere further , the whole troop lifting capacity for vertical insertation is down to what Ocean can house. And then you have a little bit of ASW hovering around, taking turns to compensate for the low endurance. Perhaps even some of those could be left at the base and replaced by the 4-6 RM scout helos.
- No ASac, over water/ land combined, and not bad for EAW either
It is not very much at all…
The planned SDSR in 2015 is going to be make or break for the CVF and Naval avaition. We will then see what the composition of the aviation component will comprise of as contract will have to be placed to ensure platforms are available for the introduction into service of the CVF.
I am personally hoping that by then the powers that be realise that the F-35 is simply unaffordable to by in effective numbers and decide on another platform. AS for MASC, whist the E-2D would be the ideal choice I can se it being looked at as “Nice to have” rather than essential. Remember we are not going to operate the CVF as a carrier in the way the US, France or even india do. It will not be a strike platform but a mobile airfield to allow avaiation support of expeditionary operation. So its air compnent will be taylored for each individual operation with assets taken from a pool that will cover all three services. Some sort of AEW is needed but given the new lease of life the Sea King appears to have gained I can see the Mk7s soldiering on well past 2020 as refurbishing them will be seen as much less expensive than new build or adapting the surplus Merlin HM1s. Whether this is true or not will be hard to tell given the opaque nature of defence spending but it will come down to priorities. Look how long the Shackleton AEW remained in service!
In an ideal world the UKs finances will have begun to stabalise by the next SDSR and the Powers that be will have listened to th experts and realised that the 2010 SDSR and CSR have left critical and real gaps in our defence and money will have to be found to fill them. It will require another series of investigations into what capabilites are essential and what are simply nice to have but with both Afghanistan and the CVF programme have a substantially less impact n the outckmes a more balanced outcome should result and maybe just maybe a decend replacement for the Mk7 could be funded if given enough priority
Lord Jim I do hope your wrong about CVF. As using them as essentially oversized Oceans would be utter madness. If that’s all they are going to be used for, then sell the bloody things and by full blown LPHDs.
As this gobbernent seems to think that if we arent actually using a capability now then we won’t need it in the future, then let’s scrap the whole fcuking lot and give the money to the hordes of won’t work or illegal immigrants / lesbian eastern block gypsies or whatever is the PC flavour of the month!
Paul g, cheers for the heads up re: RM Lynx, I’ve been out of the loop waaaaaaaaaaaay too long!
Seeing as carriers and the F-35 are in the debate, I think this has the possibility of being something of a game changer re: the F-35B/C debate…..
http://defense-update.com/wp/20110210_naval_typhoon.html
Lord Jim, there’s plenty of life left in them there Sea Kings, hanging on to them gets my vote. I dropped a letter to my MP a while ago about the rotary situation in Afghanistan and received a reassuring reply stating that there were plenty of airframe hours left. Also, I’m sure the US is dragging its old Sea Kings out of the desert and rebuilding them as S-61T’s for the State Department, proof that there’s still life in the old dog yet.
Its occured to me that Diego Garcia is up for releasing in 2014, with the Americans being out for 2016.
One wonders if “feelers” are being deployed for the rather gaping holes we seem to have in defence.