via the Daily Telegraph.
Wow.The operational and financial arguments for maintaining the Harrier in favour of the Tornado are clear to us and to the wider defence community. We therefore wish to bring to your attention a cost-effective option for retaining some Tornadoes and some Harriers, the latter under Royal Naval command, and both in reduced numbers
One thing has me curious about all this. The RAF dismantled and scrapped the Nimrods in a matter of days. The Harriers remain available.
I don't know if this is part of a larger plan on the part of the MoD in regards to its civilian leadership...a gentleman's agreement between the RAF and RN or what but something just doesn't give. Oh and the thought that they're selling a few aircraft on E-Bay (or rather were) doesn't add up either.
Strange happenings over in the UK and I don't have any visibility on what its about. This bears watching.
Oh and read the entire article. Gloves are coming off.
The gloves are indeed coming off, its pretty much Army and Navy versus Air Force (not there are no Air Marshals names on it !) and the section of the letter on "harmony rules" and "productivity" is a very big element of this. However it's not like the RAF does not want to keep more Tornado's, it is the Treasury which is demanding that the Tornado fleet be cut even further than originally planned in the SDSR. Of course the north african 'revolutions' are also coming home to roost for Her Majesties Government - for example both RN vessels rushed to the scene are about to be scrapped.
ReplyDeleteHowever the Admirals and Professors loose me at the bottom of the letter. There is no way the Super Bug is a better air defence fighter than the Typhoon. It's a matter of degree of course. Currently the Super Hornet has a better electronically scanned phased array radar, but that is part of the product improvement path for the Typhoon, which already has an IRST, and completely outclasses the F18E if it gets within visual range. So that last bit is a bit disingenuous to say the least, but I have no problem buying F18's for the FAA, and reducing the RAF to a single type fleet with 190 Typhoons, but I also think we should completely cancel our participation in F35 - we just simply cannot afford it.
Jed.
ReplyDeleteI agree on every point except your defence of the Typhoon. With AIM-9X, Python-5, ASRAAM etc...and JHMCS, then WVR combat becomes mutual destruction.
Old style classification of maneuver become passe'...both aircraft will launch over the shoulder and both will be killed.
The airplane that can launch at distance and then disengage wins.
sorry guys, its the same tired old inter service bitching that was spouted by various people prior to SDSR. I recognise a lot of the content as coming from a certain, discredited, web site. The content is invariably completely biased, fails spectacularly to understand the nature of modern joint operations, regurgitates second hand dribbling and in my opinion, does the armed forces of the UK more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteApart from that, it was great :)