Current Events in Europe

From Jane's RAF's Harrier fleet may face early retirement By Tim Ripley 09 December 2008 The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is discussing plans to withdraw the entire Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Air Force (RAF) Harrier GR.9 fleet from service in less than five years, in an attempt to save more than GBP1 billion (USD1.5 billion), Jane's has learned. The discussions come as budget planners finalise their efforts to reconcile the MoD's equipment programme and force structure with limited available funding. Jane's understands that the ministry's defence board reviewed the proposals at its meeting in the last week of November, after senior RN officers had objecte…

Bears and Blackjacks are back. What next?

The new french ASMP-A, a very advanced nuclear strike cruise missile, is now in service, from 1 October 2009: http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-...ch-service.html http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=111326 http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-Sol_Moyenne_Port%C3%A9e http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/france/bomber/asmp.htm

If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you...

From Defense Aerospace NATO Welcomes French Decision to Rejoin Military Command (Source: Deutsche Welle German radio; issued June 17, 2008) NATO has welcomed President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that France is to fully reintegrate into the military alliance in a significant shift away from French exceptionalism. NATO on Tuesday, June 17, welcomed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement that France had decided its future security is best guaranteed within Europe and the NATO military alliance and his plans for an overhaul of the military. "The secretary general welcomes the announcement by French President Sarkozy that there are no obstacles to…

From Defense Aerospace HMS Dauntless Commissioned Into Fleet (Source: U.K Ministry of Defence; issued June 3, 2010) HMS Dauntless, the second of the Royal Navy's new, formidable Type 45 destroyers, was formally commissioned into the fleet today, Thursday 3 June 2010. Hundreds of guests including families of the 190-strong ship's company attended the colourful 'christening' ceremony at Portsmouth Naval Base. Principal guests were Lady Mary Burnell-Nugent, the ship's sponsor who launched the ship at BAE Systems' Govan shipyard in Glasgow in January 2007, and Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar. The ceremony was conducted by the Venerable J…

Great series of hi rez photos of the first production Sukhoi Su-34 'Fullback' strike jets at Air Power Australia.

From RIA Novosti [excerpt] CV32: Nice shot of the Yury Dolgoruky.

'Conclusive proof' of foreign vessel in Sweden (The Local) See the recently released HCE scenario (by broncepulido) on this subject!

From RIA Novosti [excerpt]

New Russian Ballistic Missile Sub to Join Fleet (RIA Novosti)

Origin of the Separatists Buk: A Bellingcat Investigation (Bellingcat)

From http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/4-2012/item4/article2/ [excerpt]

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

British nukes were protected by bike locks By Meirion Jones Newsnight producer BBC News Newsnight has discovered that until the early days of the Blair government the RAF's nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle lock key. Inserting a key into a nuclear device There was no other security on the Bomb itself. While American and Russian weapons were protected by tamper-proof combination locks which could only be released if the correct code was transmitted, Britain relied on a simpler technology. The Dr Strangelove scenario The British military resisted Whitehall proposals to fit bombs with Permissive Action Links - or PALs - which would prev…

CV32: This portion in particular was interesting ... From Defense Aerospace [excerpt]

From Defense Aerospace Enter the Dragon (Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued Nov. 17, 2008) The Royal Navy's latest addition to the Type 45 destroyer fleet, to be called HMS Dragon, roared its way into the Clyde from BVT's shipyard at Govan today, complete with an 18 metre long Welsh Dragon attached to its bow. Dragon will join her sister ships as one of the largest and most powerful warships in the world. As well as providing air defence over a wide area, including for the future aircraft carriers, the Type 45s will be highly versatile and able to conduct a variety of operations. They will be able to carry up to sixty Royal Marines Commandos and their…

From Ares Blog Scalp Naval Starts Flight Trials Posted by Robert Wall at 6/15/2010 7:26 AM CDT France has begun flight trials of the MBDA Scalp Naval sea-launched cruise missile. The test firing of the MdCN (missile de croisiere naval), as the Scalp Naval is formally known by its customer, the French armaments agency DGA, took place at France’s missile range at Biscarrosse on May 28, but DGA only announced the event June 15. The missile was fired from a vertical launcher which would be used for the operational application on the Fremm multipurpose frigate and the Barracuda submarine. France is looking to field 150 Scalp Navals on Fremm frigates s…

From BBC [excerpt]

Ukraine Missiles Go Missing from Crimea Naval Base By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, KIEV Two anti-aircraft missiles and a launch system have gone missing from a Ukrainian naval base in the Crimean peninsula, the defense ministry said Feb. 22. Guards came across two unidentified persons breaking into a weapons depot near Chernomorskoye, western Crimea, early in the morning Feb. 22, a statement said. The pair escaped, but guards then discovered a depot with a forced padlock from which two missiles stored in containers and a launch system for the Strela-3M portable air defense missile system were missing. Police were searching for the thieves and a special com…