We were discussing earlier this week the UK’s capacity to move personnel in and out ouf Afghanistan, whether the hub and spoke arrangement currently used with a mixture of RAF aircraft equipped with suitable DAS and civilian charters is necessarily the most efficient. This is a complex subject, the sheer volume or equipment and personnel moving back and forth is vast. [...]
Announced this week was the official naming ceremony of the RAF’s newest and largest aircraft, the Voyager On the 15th of July the MoD wrote The RAF’s largest ever aircraft has been officially named Voyager after being flown by an RAF pilot today at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford – its first public appearance. Here one is, [...]
Has transport and airborne refuelling been neglected in recent times and resources funnelled to Typhoon, Tornado, Harrier and other more offensive systems? If you believe the ‘Fast Jet Mafia’ theories then yes and the dire state of the RAF’s transport and AAR capability would seem to confirm this. The RAF’s lack of capacity has been exposed by enduring operations in [...]
The National Audit Office report in March of this year painted a damning picture and the Defence Select Committee have waded in a few days ago with another, neatly times to coincide with the first flight of the aircraft. It is worth quoting the reports summary In March 2008, the Ministry of Defence (the Department) signed a private finance initiative [...]
Liam Fox has been urging industry to improve value for money for the taxpayer. The irony is that the majority of cost inflation is caused by government interference but that’s another story. “The defence programme is entirely unaffordable – especially if we try to do what we need to do in the future while simultaneously doing everything that we’ve done [...]
In this mornings Times Vince Cable MP said. I fear that a lot of bad news about the public finances has been hidden and stored up for the new government. The skeletons are starting to fall out of the cupboard. So the propaganda has already started; we will be able to somehow wriggle out of taking any responsibility for the [...]
The UK is continuing with Future strategic Aircraft Tanker (FSTA) programme that is being fulfilled as a PFI contract with Airtanker, a consortium consisting of Cobham, EADS, Rolls-Royce, Thales UK and VT Group. Over 27 years the company will provide the RAF with airborne refuelling and strategic transport for personnel and cargo. Although it is widely acknowledged that the PFI concept has [...]
Following on from the signature of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) contract a year ago today, AirTanker Services (ATrS) has been engaged in the delivery of the key infrastructure and detailed development of the FSTA service. ATrS is now pleased to announce that the first programme milestones have been achieved on time or, in some cases, ahead of schedule. [...]
The Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft is the RAF’s new tanker and strategic transport aircraft based on the Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The 14 aircraft will replace the existing and rather knackered Tristar’s and VC10’s that are valiantly soldiering on maintaining and airbridge to the Middle East and other places. To provide some idea of just how much the RAF is [...]
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