A Chinook helicopter of 1310 Flt, 27 Squadron RAF collects an underslung load to deliver supplies to a Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan. The Chinooks provide a vital link keeping troops on the ground supplied with everything from food and water to ammunition. This image was a winner in the RAF 2011 Photographic Competition. Photographer: Flt Sgt Graham Spark (RAF)
In the news this week is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator and its acceptance into USAF service. At 14 tonnes the MOP is the heaviest air delivered bomb ever created but the tremendous engineering challenges involved with creating such a deep penetration weapon have taken some time to resolve. As much a strategic weapon as anything else it will no doubt [...]
Continuing with Ixion’s series of guest posts OK this is gonna hurt…. Firstly, Can we stow all the Brylcream, rubber soled homosexual jokes. All the stuff about staying in 5 star hotels whilst real soldiers have sand in their cracks. In other words all the inter service rivalry, snide remarks etc. This is a supposedly serious post Why do [...]
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, [...]
BAe and Dassault Aviation have today announced the name of the long planned joint UK-French Medium Altitude Long Endurance UAS. In Greek mythology, Telemos was the prophetic son of Eurymos, known for having the vision and foresight to warn Polyphemus about an attack by Odysseus. The two companies will jointly present the capabilities that underpin the Telemos programme at the [...]
In the previous 20 posts I have looked at the RAF, its applicability as a separate service, organisation, tasks and equipment. Much like the Royal Navy series the underlying strategy is the maintenance of a small core of full spectrum capabilities to hedge against strategic uncertainty, surrounded by a small number of ‘capability plus’ areas that build out from the [...]
I am going to start this post with a story about screwing! A friend of mine is a joiner and of course takes his tools very seriously. Whereas your average DIY enthusiast might buy a cordless drill that doubles as a screwdriver a professional, whose livelihood depends on completing the job quickly and effectively, will invest in separate tools, because [...]
This is the last post in the Future of the RAF Series and let’s be honest, it has been a bit fragmented and troublesome! In addition, my mammoth detour into the history of air operations in the last 60 odd years in response to the PTT absorbed a lot of time but given the nature of the current debate I [...]
Best put the kettle on, twice. This is not intended to be authoritative and I would strongly urge readers to research the facts and points of view (which aren’t facts) for themselves. No doubt I have made a number of errors and if anyone wants to point them out in the comments section I would be happy to make corrections. [...]
When we discussed ISTAR in the Future of the RAF series I looked at the role of manned ISTAR versus unmanned and wrote that there was still a role for manned aircraft, operating costs, satellite bandwidth frugality and the ability to fly in complex airspace being just two advantages they have over current UAV’s. The UK has been flying the [...]
In the previous post I came to the conclusion that the future of rotary lift was pretty much as planned by the MoD, Merlin utility to CHF, more Chinook/upgrades for the RAF, upgraded Puma’s, Merlin HM2 upgrade, Wildcat and a big question mark over the Sea Kings. As I noted, for this to work, the forces need to grapple with [...]
The Scotsman is reporting that the decks of HMS Illustrious are being recoated. Nothing newsworthy there you might think, but, it is also reporting that the specific grade of paint being used is suitable for the Harrier, a grade higher than might be used for just helicopter operations. As we know, the Harriers have been withdrawn and HMS Illustrious used [...]
As with other posts on the subject, I have lumped this one in the RAF section for convenience, I think one commenter made the point that it would have been better to bases these series of posts on capabilities rather than services and this is a very god point but at this stage I want to push on. As I [...]
Tribes of Amazonian indians as yet untouched by western civilisation will probably still have heard of the adverse press the RAF and MoD are getting about Typhoon. And rightly so, whatever the capabilities of the Typhoon, and lets be absolutely certain here, they are significant, the programme has been a complete cake and arse party In 1938 the first Spitfire entered [...]
Another guest post from Gabrielle Typhoon, the numbers The Typhoon programme, numbers and tranche system is not the easiest of things to follow, so I think I’ll start by making some clarity over the numbers first of all. It is worth remembering that, back in the 80s when the programme was being started up, Germany and the UK were planning [...]
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