The UK’s Carrier Strike programme marches on Two good articles from DoD Buzz and Atlantic Sentinel (click the image to read) highlight the recent trip the the US of Secretary of State for Defence, Phillip Hammond MP This of course makes perfect sense, we will be sharing the same aircraft, the F35C, unless my outside bet comes to fruition [...]
Like a moth to a flame I can’t help returning to this subject but it’s an elephant sized subject is an increasingly small room and therefore what defence themed blog can avoid it? Let’s remind ourselves of defence planning assumptions, so easily overlooked in conversations about sortie rates, being a proper Navy, reach back payloads, tail hooks, cost inflation and [...]
A fire broke out earlier today in a section of CVF whilst in construction. The BBC reported that 40 firefighters and seven fire engines were needed to bring the fire under control, which was traced to an equipment extractor fan. Rosyth councillor Douglas Chapman told the BBC Scotland news website: “I am very grateful that the police have confirmed that [...]
Confusion continues to reign in the land of CVF. The MoD seems unable to get it’s story straight on the conversion to conventional carrier aircraft operations and is increasingly looking like it doesn’t know it’s arse from it’s elbow. A recent Parliamentary answer confirmed the ‘official position’ that basically seems to be that no decisions have yet been made, with [...]
Maybe one day the never ending saga that is CVF will come to a satisfactory end and we can all get on with arguing about which version of the latest plasma rifle we should adopt. Until that point though, there is a constant stream of news, good or bad, depending on your viewpoint of degree of weary slope shouldered cynicism. [...]
Before starting this discussion we should all fully understand that project CVF is not a strategic priority for the current Government, if they could, they would have cancelled them in an instant. It is a combination of industrial and political factors that will result in the MoD paying for two, but planning on only bringing one into service, and whether [...]
Did anyone see the news a couple of weeks ago about the CVF blocks starting to be joined? The two sections brought together will form the mid section of the hull up to the hangar deck and is referred to as Lower Block 03. On completion, the block will weigh about 9,300 tons and stand over 23m tall, 63m long [...]
In looking at the subject of carrier strike I am setting myself up, if I agree that they are a good idea then I am deluded or if I think they are not a good idea I am simply an RAF stooge unworthy of taking seriously. In much of the debate around carrier strike there is an absence of strategic [...]
Interesting news on the CVF front. The Treasury have released a letter from the Chief Executive Officer of BAE Systems addressed to David Cameron on the issue of military shipbuilding and CVF in particular. In defence of BAE, they are a commercial organisation that have a legal duty to their shareholders, they are not a charity. The MoD was as [...]
For several years there has been a slow and steady drift into greater collaboration with European allies in matters of defence. Collaboration then becomes resource sharing, then integration and before you know it we will have slid into a state of affairs that leaves us unable to deploy military capabilities alone. The carriers are an obvious case in point. Since [...]
Over the last few weeks and no doubt many times today, usually in reference to CVF, the term Too expensive to cancel Will be heard What Complete and Utter Bollocks There have been contracts placed but every day in the real world contracts are cancelled, organisations sit down and work through the issues and usually a compromise is reached. Where [...]
One might be forgiven if the latest in a long line of rumours about what seems to be the most important aspect of the SDSR, whether the Royal Navy retain the CVF programme, are simply ignored, but the latest batch of rumours really are worth commenting on. Reported in various news sources is the confirmation of 2 CVF, with QE [...]
In all the talk of sacrificing the amphibious fleet in order to retain CVF it is a worthwhile exercise to see how defence diplomacy is done by the Royal Navy. HMS Ocean is a Landing Platform Helicopter and whilst many complain that she was built to commercial standards and therefore not a ‘proper warship’ the reality is, she has been [...]
Elements of 656 Squadron Army Air Corps have recently embarked on HMS Ark Royal to take part in the latest Exercise Joint Warrior. This will see 3 Apache attack helicopters operating aboard including their supporting personnel including 120 engineers and maintainers. As well as it being a relatively new experience for the three aircraft and ten pilots, there is also a [...]
As we loom towards the SDSR publication with decisions possibly already made, Scottish politicians are uniting behind it, various English MP’s are uniting behind it, BAe are releasing stories about how much they have already spent and the mainstream media, it would seem, have a series of ‘senior sources in the MoD’ that have as many opinions on the decision [...]
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