Tag: CVF
Arse, Meet Elbow
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 [...]
That NAO Report
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 [...]
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria and/or CVF?
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 [...]
SDSR – Analysis #05a (Carrier Strike)
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 [...]
Bent over a barrel
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. [scribd id=41079584 key=key-q2b1p8ksth2auw4sa4z mode=list] In defence of BAE, they are a commercial organisation that have a legal duty to their shareholders, [...]
A French Affair
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 [...]
Too Expensive to Cancel
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 [...]
CVF Rumour and Sigh*
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 [...]
Defence Diplomacy Done Right
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 [...]
A Taste of the Future
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 [...]
Thoughts on CVF
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 [...]
I Am Puzzled
In the Guardian yesterday was a piece from Richard Norton-Taylor, the papers Security Editor, in which he describes how the MoD is planning to add ‘cheaper plans and catapults’ to reduce cost from the F35B. It’s a rehash of the F18/Rafale/F35C story from a few weeks ago and therefore likely complete nonsense, but in the [...]
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