FDR Supporting Articles – Carrier Based Fast Air

THINK DEFENCE: As you know we operate an open door policy, this is another post from one of our regular contributors, Jed…

In the previous articles written by myself and the ThinkDefence teams we both independently came to the conclusion that the future of the RAF lay in the cost effective management of a single aircraft type as the ‘fast jet fleet’ and that the single type should be the Typhoon. We both advocated the early retirement of the Harrier GR9 and the cancellation of the UK’s commitment to, and interest in the Lockheed Martin F35 (Joint Combat Aircraft).

However this leads to an immediate problem. The UK Govt. finally ordered the two large deck carriers first promulgated in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, and open source information seems to suggest the CVF (Future Carrier) programme is now progressed to the point where it will be cheaper to build the two carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_class_aircraft_carrier).

So, if we are not going to cancel them because of contractual penalities, and we are not going to sell them (India being the latest rumour) because of pride and because the rest of the Royal Navy’s capabilities have been mortgaged to get them in the first place, then we better have something to fly from them !

Read more…

FDR Supporting Articles – UK Tactical Air Power

THINK DEFENCE: As you know we operate an open door policy, this is a post from one of our regular contributors, Jed…

I started writing this article during my lunch hours after the ThinkDefence guys posted their article “FDR – the RAF and Airpower, Introduction”.

However they beat me to and posted their uncannily similar artilce, “FDR – Air (Fast Jets)” , so as our articles are not entirely identical, I provide this as a supporting article if the team decide to post it.

My possibly controversial hypothesis in this piece is based on an attempted balance between future capability and the reality of the defence budget. Anyone who works in the corporate world will probably be sick of hearing “do more with less” – but this is a real concept as far the British armed forces are concerned. The focus of the piece is the fast jet force, but as this does not exist in isolation, it does touch on other capabilities.

Read more…

FDR – Air (Fast Jets)

The Typhoon is expensive but is now achieving some level of maturity and showing its versatility, recent trials have confirmed its excellence in close air support operations and its air dominance power, especially when’ the Meteor comes into service, will be more than a match for most foreseeable opponents.

This proposal is a controversial one so we are going to get it out early!

In order to provide economies of scale, a streamlined training and logistics stream it is proposed that the RAF revert to a single, genuinely multi-purpose fast jet for strike, close air support, air dominance and other supporting roles, the Typhoon.

Read more…

Cheap CAS/COIN is an Illusion – Lets Get Off the Bandwagon

Listen to anyone these days (even this blog!) and they all say we must have a turboprop close air support and COIN aircraft. The US has issued various requests for information and is pursuing the concept under the Imminent Fury programme. Will any of these programmes go ahead, who knows, but we thought we would have a look at the arguments and why the ground swell of opinion seems to favour going back to turboprops to deliver combat effects.

The drive to reduce costs leads to the conclusion that a low priced aircraft is the answer and Embraer have proposed the Super Tucano, Beechcraft the AT-6, Air Tractor with the AT802 and even Boeing have pitched in with an offer to restart production of OV-10 Bronco. There are many other proposals as well, such as the Piper PA-48 Enforcer (a modern P51 Mustang)

Read more…