Current Events in Europe

Due to financial reasons all 206A will leave the navy within June 2010..... If i can find an english source i´ll post a link. As a replacement two new 212 will come...

From Defense Aerospace Dutch Parliament Votes to Cancel First JSF Aircraft (Source: defense-aerospace.com; issued May-21, 2010) (By Dutch JSF analyst Johan Boeder; edited by defense-aerospace.com) THE HAGUE, Netherlands --- The Dutch Parliament’s Lower House voted yesterday to cancel the order for the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, and to stop Dutch participation in the program’s Initial Operational Test and Evaluation phase. It also voted to direct the defense ministry to begin anew the Request for Proposal and the complete evaluation of the F-16 replacement program, for which a final decision is due in 2012. The basis for yesterday’s vote is…

From RIA Novosti Russia to help Ukraine finish construction of missile cruiser REUTERS/ Andrei Mosienko 20:2017/05/2010 Russia has agreed to help Ukraine finish construction on a missile cruiser, which has been stalled for almost 15 years, the Ukrainian president said on Monday. Construction of the Slava class Admiral Lobov cruiser was launched in 1984 at the Nikolayev shipyard in Ukraine but stalled during its final stage in the late 1980s due to a sharp reduction in military expenditure. The cruiser was renamed the Ukraina in 1992. "We have agreed that Russia will complete construction of the Ukraina cruiser," Viktor Yanukovych said at a joint news con…

Interesting and useful info for aspiring scenario authors ... From Aviation Week Russia Upgrades Air Defenses May 11, 2010 By Maxim Pyadushkin Moscow The Russian air force took delivery of the first Pantsyr-S short-range air-defense systems in March. The Pantsyrs will gradually replace the old Tunguska antiaircraft weapons. The first 10 systems were released from KBP Instrument Design Bureau’s assembly site in Tula and transported to Alabino, near Moscow, and will be part of the Victory Day parade in Red Square on May 9. What’s unusual is that the first Pantsyr systems are being deployed to protect high-end surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) against aircraf…

It's looking more and more like a Hung Parliament...

From Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Russian Nuclear Forces, 2010 (PDF)

From Defense Industry Daily Upgrading the Admiral: Russia’s Kuznetsov 08-Apr-2010 15:11 EDT Russia’s “heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers” have received a lot of unfavorable attention from India’s snake-bit deal to refurbish the Admiral Gorshkov; in fairness, however, the Russians haven’t had much more luck with their own ship. Launched in 1985, it was not commissioned until 1995 – and since then, it has endured extremely long dockings and seen only limited deployment. When it’s operational, the The 55,000t Admiral Kuznetsov is a big step up from the smaller Kiev Class’ combination of Yak-38 Forger V/STOL jets and naval helicopters, flying navalized SU-25 close air …

From RIA Novosti Russia's Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered cruiser plies English Channel 14:01 05/04/2010 The Russian nuclear-powered cruiser Pyotr Veliky, deployed to participate in the largest Russian Navy drills in the Indian Ocean, has crossed the English Channel for the first time in her history. "The ship has indeed passed through the channel for the first time," the commander of the cruiser, Capt. 2nd Rank Felix Menkov, told a RIA Novosti correspondent on board the vessel. "The English Channel is shallow...and has a great deal of potential risks, including heavy marine traffic both to the south and the north," Menkov said. Six days after leaving…

Air Power Australia (APA) has released its assessment of the Sukhoi PAK-FA. Assessing the Sukhoi PAK-FA

From Flight Global DATE: 30/03/10 SOURCE: Flight International Saying goodbye to the 'Mighty Hunter' By Craig Hoyle The UK Royal Air Force will mark the end of an era in its proud maritime patrol heritage on 31 March, when the last of its British Aerospace Nimrod MR2s will be retired from use. Commemorated during a formal ceremony at RAF Kinloss in Scotland late last week, the occasion will bring to an end 41 years of operations with the Nimrod: a type derived from the world's first jet airliner, the ill-fated de Havilland Comet, which first flew in 1949. Having been selected in 1965 to meet the Ministry of Defence's Operational Requirement 381, the …

From Defense Aerospace Press Release (Source: Romanian Ministry of Defence; issued March 24, 2010) (Issued in Romanian only; unofficial translation by defense-aerospace.com) National Defense Minister Gabriel Oprea presented, during the meeting of the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT) held on March 23, 2010, a statement on the Multirole Aircraft Program of the Romanian Air Force. Given that Romania does not have the financial resources necessary for the acquisition of new multirole aircraft, CSAT has approved the Defence Ministry’s proposal to acquire 24 used F-16 aircraft. The proposal will be submitted for discussion and approval by the Romanian Pa…

From DefenseNews RAF Accepts 1st Nimrod MRA4 By andrew chuter Published: 11 Mar 2010 14:12 LONDON - The first BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime surveillance aircraft destined for the Royal Air Force has been formally accepted and declared ready for crew training by Britain's Ministry of Defence. The aircraft is the first of nine MRA4s ordered to fulfill maritime and wider intelligence surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance roles for the air force here. Handover of the first production aircraft may have taken place but it will be 2012 before the machine is introduced into service following a decision by the government late last year to delay i…

In short, UK retires the Nimrod MR.2 in March 2010, and it must wait to 2012 to see the Nimrod MRA.4 in service. A two year gap without ASW nor maritime patrol aircrafts, bad thing for a insular state: http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=112034 (in french) http://australianaviation.com.au/uk-brings...mr2-retirement/ Some relevant excerpts of the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker-Siddeley_Nimrod : On 15 December 2009, the Ministry of Defence announced that the introduction to service of the Nimrod MRA4 will be delayed until 2012 as part of wide-ranging defence spending cuts

A PDF document comparing 2008 defense spending between the USA and Europe (courtesy of the EDA): http://www.eda.europa.eu/WebUtils/download...aspx?fileid=828

A short and very interesting article about the situation of Marine Nationale in 1939 and her motivations, at the start of WWII (in French): http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=112023

The Borey class SSBN, proyect 955, can be cancelled after the first three units, the launching of the fourth class boat is now cancelled. Also, the launching of her new SLBM RS 30 Bulava (SS-NX-30) has failed 8 of 12 launching attempts. Also the Yaseni class SSGN, proyect 885, is failing her in service dates, none in service nor launched with the keel of the first laid-up in 1993. Also the Lada class SS, launched in 2004 and not yet in service: http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=111985 (in French, some interesting photos).

The name Dixmude is a rememberance of a battle fought in Belgium in the WWI by the Fusiliers Marins. Is out of the, for now, tradition of name the french amphibious vessels with the name of tempest winds, as Ouragan, Orage, Foudre, Siroco, Mistral and Tonnerre. The name is a rememberance also of the old zeppelin Dixmude, ex- LZ-114, lost in 1923, and of the CVE Dixmude, ex- HMS Biter, transfered in 1945. The original link (in french): http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=111998 About CVE Dixmude: http://frenchnavy.free.fr/ships/aircraft-c...ude/dixmude.htm About Dixmude ex- LZ-114: http://frenchnavy.free.fr/menus/menu_dirigeables-ballons.htm (only a small pho…

From Aviation Week Russian Military Aircrew Numbers Tumble Dec 16, 2009 Alexey Komarov/Moscow Douglas Barrie/London Aircrew numbers in the Russian air force are to be cut by 40% as part of a program that will see the service adopt a revised operational-command structure by year-end. Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, the air force chief, unveiled the far-reaching plan last summer with the aim of transforming his service into an agile force capable of dealing with more diverse types of threats. Zelin says the new structure will consist of operational commands, air force bases and aerospace defense brigades (to counter aircraft and missile threats). Existing air …

From Aviation Week A400M Takes Flight Dec 11, 2009 By Robert Wall The Airbus Military A400M took to the air at 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 11 — the culmination of a two-decade long struggle on Europe's part to develop a next-generation airlifter. Powered by its four 11,000-shaft-horsepower Europrop International TP400D engines, MSN001 took off from the EADS facility in Seville with Airbus's chief military test pilot Ed Strongman at the controls and Ignacio "Nacho" Lombo in the right seat. Eric Isorce is the senior flight test engineer, joined by Jean-Philippe Cottet, Dider Ronceray, and Gerard Leskerpit. Around 50 engineers in each of the two main ground faciliti…

From Ares Alligator On Board Posted by Robert Wall at 12/1/2009 6:49 AM CST The Franco-Russian defense and aerospace relationship was underscored not just by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to France last week -- during which several industrial agreements were inked -- but also with the recent landing of a Ka-52 attack helicopter on the French Mistral helicopter landing ship. The Mistral was deployed to St. Petersburg when the Ka-52 landing took place as part of a broader cross decking exercise. The event is significant, in part, because the Ka-52 isn't even operational yet, French officials note. It wasn’t just the Ka-52 that land…