harikaridog

Yes we should insist these be built in Britain, then we can be sure that they will be over budget and delayed.

Hmm it seems to be a race between our CVF and the F-35 as to which will win the prize for most confused and delayed project. Every morning I drive to work past Portsmouth naval base...... and I can quite clearly see the Ark Royal slowly falling apart plus 3 x quite capable Type 22 batch 3 Frigates rusting as I watch. All the while I know massive funds continue to be poured into two projects that will probably never ever see the light of day in British Service! That drive to work used to be a pleasure......all it does is depress me now.

There's little doubt that they will have spent much more time in dry dock or undergoing maintenance than they will have spent at sea, even by the time their service lives are spent. By most all accounts, they were in much worse shape than we were led to believe. I know there were a few scary incidents when these boats were in RN service, is there any indication that the boats were essentially flawed...or are the problems due to amount of time they were laid up before being sold to Canada. Roger

Janes 04/08/2008 A new armed naval variant of China's Z-9 helicopter has been rolled out, fitted with a new anti-ship missile. Developed from Harbin's Z-9C shipboard helicopter, already in service with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, the latest aircraft is designated Z-9D. An image taken recently at the Harbin Aircraft Industry Group facility in the northeastern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, shows what appears to be the prototype Z-9D armed with a Hongdu radar-guided TL-10B (KJ-10B) missile. This is the first time that an anti-ship missile has been seen on a Chinese naval helicopter. The image also confirms that the air-launched TL-10 programme is moving forward to deployment. The TL-10 missile family first appeared in public as a ship-launched weapon (JJ-10) in 2004. In 2006, its manufacturer, the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, showed the air-launched version (KJ-10). The TL-10 series is a modern, lightweight anti-ship missile system with a 30 kg armour-piercing warhead. It is a rocket-powered, relatively high speed (M0.85) weapon with a maximum range of about 18 km when air launched. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the TL-10 programme is that it has been developed in co-operation with Iran.

Hopefully this might mean proper deployments in 2009 of UK Harriers on the Illustrious and Ark rather than being forced to embark Spanish and USMC AV8s to keep operational fixed wing carrier expertise honed..... that should make a nice OOB difference for some 'what-if' Falklands 2 scenarios

Source Aviation News 17/06/2008 In spite of the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 having been declared multi-role operationally capable from the beginning of July the Ministry of Defence stated that the Royal Air Force’s Panavia Tornado GR.4s are to assume a new mission from early next year, with the type to replace a detachment of BAE Systems Harrier GR.7/9 ground-attack aircraft that has been based at Afghanistan’s Kandahar airfield since November 2004. Announcing the move on 16 June, UK defence secretary Des Browne described Joint Force Harrier’s provision of close air support services in Afghanistan (below) as "Amongst the most potent of all our capabilities in deterring and denying the insurgency.” But noting: “I am very mindful of the strain that this extended deployment has put upon the crews, their families and the wider roles of Joint Force Harrier,” Browne said: “I have therefore decided to withdraw the Harrier force by spring 2009 and to replace them with an equivalent force of Tornado GR.4s.” The decision to deploy Tornados in the place of the Harrier confirms a move away from an earlier proposal to send the RAF’s new Eurofighter Typhoons to Kandahar. It also places added pressure on the service’s GR.4 community, which is currently manning a long-running commitment to support coalition operations in Iraq from Qatar’s Al Udeid air base. Informed sources state that the first deployment will be aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth but that all seven RAF Tornado GR.4 Squadrons will rotate in conjunction with their commitments at Al Udeid. It was suggested that this would be only a three-year commitment but that Harrier will in turn once again replace it. Typhoon looks increasingly unlikely to be deployed to the region and even at the media facility on July 1 to unveil Typhoon in its multi-role/swing-role capability answers to questions about its future deployment were tinged with waffle and ambiguity. Typhoon is however to be deployed to RAF Stanley, Falkland Islands, in the very near future taking over the QRA facility from RAF Tornado F.3s.

Source INDIADEFENCE 29/07/2008 The INS Sindhuvijay diesel-electric submarine will set sail for India on August 5 to rejoin the Indian navy after an extensive overhaul at a shipyard in northern Russia, the company said on Tuesday. The Project 877EKM Kilo-class submarine had been undergoing a refit at the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk since 2005. The overhaul was delayed for six months due to the unacceptable performance of its new SS-N-27 Club-S cruise missiles. In six consecutive pre-delivery test firings in September - November 2007, the Club missiles failed to find their targets and India refused to accept the delivery until all the problems had been fixed. The Club-S subsonic cruise missile is designed for launch from a 533 mm torpedo tube, or a vertical launch tube. It has a range of 160 nautical miles (about 220 km). It uses an ARGS-54 active radar seeker and Glonass satellite and inertial guidance. The new trials were completed in mid-July and were successful. Sindhuvijay is the 4th Indian navy submarine to have been refitted at the Zvyozdochka shipyard. The upgrade program also involved a complete overhaul of the submarine, including its hull structure, as well as improved control systems, sonars, electronic warfare systems, and an integrated weapon control system. The upgrades reportedly cost about $80 million. Russia's Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines have gained a reputation as extremely quiet boats, and have been purchased by China, India, Iran, Poland, Romania and Algeria. Yes I know this is an old story however just had the pleasure of seeing the above KILO leave Portsmouth Harbour Today. You can see a couple of Photos I took on the following link to some of my Ship Pics.......Please feel free to use them if you wish? INS Sindhuvijay

Yep you are correct, I was confused with Avenger....IIRC she was first to have her triple tubes removed due to budget constraints. Regards.........

Fantastic, Thanks for that, wmarsh's Battleset and Scenarios are excellent and I have had a lot of enjoyment playing them PS do your changes also include the 2 x triple ASW torpedo tubes mounted on Ambuscade and Antelope....? PPS Active had a Wasp HAS1 embarked during the conflict (XT779) Sorry if already catered for... Regards............

Hi just wanted to make a comment on the Type 21 FF in the Falkland Island orders of battles. Of the Type 21s deployed all but Ambuscade and Antelope were carrying 4 x MM38 Exocets. I have to say I had not checked before I started the Approach to the Falklands scenario, so when my SAG of 1 x County and 2 x Type 21 encountered the Argentinian Carrier group I was missing 8 x Exocets During the conflict the Glamorgan, Arrow and Alacrity were often combined into a SAG with the nickname 'Three Musketeers' Aside from this thanks for all the hardwork on the battleset...much appreciated.