Author Archives
Looking South – An Alternative Slant
THE SEARCH for oil in the South Atlantic has briefly caused the eyes of the nation to divert its gaze from Afghanistan to the Falkland Islands. The Government of Argentina has seen fit to voice its concerns over the potential untapped mineral wealth under the ocean, and is clearly unhappy about the ...
Osprey: Capabilty versus Cost – Is it really worth it?
Since its inception the MV-22 Osprey has generated a significant amount of controversy, especially during its protracted development. This development phase was significantly long, at times tragic, and the costs were somewhat insurmountable, even by UK MOD procurement standards.
However, now that the ...
It’s the Way You Tell Em!
Like any joke, it’s the way you tell it that makes a good one great.
The same goes for the Major Projects Report 2009, issued by the MOD on 15th December, with special regard to the AW159 Lynx Wildcat. The Future Lynx Wildcat is one of our favourite subjects, in a large pool of MoD debacles the Wildcat ...
AW109: Battlefield Light Utility Helicopter Par Excellence
The Lynx Wildcat, whether you love it or loath it, will undoubtedly be the Army Air Corps main mode of battlefield transportation for the next three decades, despite its stratospheric development and procurement costs. As a previous post highlighted the AW139/149 as a low-cost Light Utility Helicopter ...
Afghanistan – Searching for a Point
“It was the English,” Kaspar cried,
“Who put the French to rout;
But what they fought each other for
I could not well make out.”
‘The Battle of Blenheim’ – Robert Southey (1774 -1843)
A searching question was posted on this website 18th July, asking what ...
COIN Aircraft – Cracking the Nut
With any conflict, whether it is conventional or counter insurgency (COIN), airpower will play an important, if not pivotal role. When fighting a large, sophisticated army the air assets need to be equally sophisticated to counter the vast array of weapons that will be deployed against them. In a ...
Future Proofing Defence Capability – Food for Thought
A recent article in The Independent on Sunday, 2nd August, highlighted the current problems with UK’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan. With regard to this deployment, the British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, commented that UK forces could be there for ‘decades’. By decades ...
Future Lynx – Wildcat or FatCat
Not for the first time in its history has the AgustaWestland Lynx Wildcat been the focus of this website or the media in general, and not for all the right reasons. Lynx Wildcat’s latest foray back into the headlines has been due to vast increase in its development costs. The actual cost of the ...
A Tale of Two Chinooks
Whether the Government likes it or not, helicopters are on the agenda and regularly on the front page. In this instance we take a delve into the recent story of the ‘Cut and Shut Chinook Scandal’, which actually isn’t a scandal. It isn’t actually much of a story, but at the moment it is being ...
Afghanistan and the Case of the Missing Helicopters
Another excellent post from one of our regular contributors;
Helicopters, or at least the lack of them, have generated a number of headlines and a great deal of consternation in Westminster over the past few weeks. David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, has made a great deal of political capital ...
