Fighter Planes For Aircraft Carrier

[Andy™]

apparantly its been announced that the government are to spedd up the order of new aircraft to 24 to step up its 'aircraft carrier punch', making us second to the US

so if any terrorists are reading and planning on attacking us, be warned, we are armed and will fight back. in 8 years time... so if you wouldnt mind waiting a bit longer...

 

[Blue Duck]

how long has this gone on now? 25 years? another 8 won't hurt! :innocent

 

[ProDave]

I thought we had an agreement to borrow the French carrier if we needed one?  Oh hang on, it's busy just now dealing with IS.

Perhaps IS chose the wrong target as the French do have the means to fight back, we don't.

I am really surprised the Argies haven't had another pop at the Falkland, I bet our response would not be the same as last time (we would have to wait for the French to finish sorting IS before we could borrow their carrier)

 

[binky]

we've got quite a force in the Falklands still, otherwise....

Not a single aircraft carrier in our Navy, unbelievable really. Having said that we have bases in Iraq and I think on Cyprus still.

 

[Evans Electric]

Not sure if I heard this correctly , it was late night radio ............. but I think I heard we were buying some Stealth aircraft from the US .

We never learn , all the Harriers are gone I believe ,  and as you say , no carrier,  the same before WW2 I believe , as  Churchill warned of Germany re-arming ,  we were disarming .       What country would have armed the first Home Guard with broomsticks and bayonets taped to them ?

Why not put the likes of Harrier Jump Jets into mothballs as with an aircraft carrier . 

 

[binky]

The airframes are proably past their best by now, we are suppossed to be buying some American aircraft devleoped for the aircrft carrier, shame we don't invest in our own industry, again! (but it's cheaper to buy from the yanks of course... :red card )

 

[NozSpark]

As Binky says the Harriers were well past their best.... Here's a link to their replacement

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2015/june/25/150625-f35-ski-ramp

 

[Sharpend]

There's no chance of that raised flap getting weak and suffering premature failure due to fatigue then?

What was wrong with the directional jets of the original?

 

[OnOff]

A lad I know is in the RAF. Was part of the (completely gutted) team who de-commissioned the perfectly serviceable Harrier fleet and sold them off to the Yanks with years worth of brand new spares for a song as part of the UK austerity measures. 74 planes I thought but says 77 here:

http://forces.tv/32558083

Up until then they had been servicing them by the book and spent a fortune on a refit. It appears though this was all done just to maintain the air worthiness to attract a buyer.

 Police force next probably! 

 

[kerching]

The F35 is quite clever....apart from taking off with the sun roof open!

Harriers. FECKING AWESOME,! End of

British made!.....can the Yanks make a similar product ?....can they fu.............

Next thing Emma Clancy will be the CEO.....all for Charrrrrrrrridy. You know!

 

[Evans Electric]

Dunno why the Yanks are buying them ........their Marine Corp couldn't fly them .

 

[Blue Duck]

They are using them in Iraq against Isis a acording to onoff's link. maybe that's what we should have done a long time ago before we had no aeroplanes. :C

the raptor is an awesome plane but will cost as much per plane as the entire (recently refitted) Harrier fleet was sold to the Americans.

meh.

 

[Sharpend]

Ah yes duckie, but then it's better to have one technologically advanced fighter than a whole squadron of aged fighters, look at Robocop he did more for policing than the regulars!!!

 

[Blue Duck]

ahh...but you see robocop was so good that the others stopped doing their jobs and left him to it and in the end he was overwhelmed and they had to try save him.

what are we going to save "robocop" with? maybe the French have something we could borrow?

Someone get the imperial war museum on the phone we need that harrier back!

:lol:

 

[binky]

the Yanks were making Harriers under license, and of course, made them bigger! But as good as the Harrier was, it's an old design and the new F35 incorporates stealth technology. It is amazingly expensive to develop new aircraft, so I understand buying 'off the shelf' but once our own expertise is lost, it is gone forever. America doess have to benefit though of shear numbers, they design and build their own equipment for their own very large forces, or insist on building under licence in the USA to 'steal' the technology and keep their own jobs. As we slowly lose our defence capability, we are also losing a major export that does bring money into the UK. Short sighted as usual!

 

[OnOff]

Read the book Vulcan 607. When The Falklands kicked off we'd all but forgotten all we knew about in flight re-fuelling technology figuring we'd never need it again (the Yanks having by then taking on board and run with our systems I think).

We had to call back retired guys and reservists. Most of the nozzles on the fronts of the Vulcans had been filled with concrete. A vital component that couldn't be found to reproduce was finally located being used as a doorstop! 

 

[binky]

Hence I am now an electrician and no longer a CAD design engineer. The cunning plan is based on you can't ship houses to China......

 

[Tony S]

Read the book Vulcan 607. When The Falklands kicked off we'd all but forgotten all we knew about in flight re-fuelling technology figuring we'd never need it again (the Yanks having by then taking on board and run with our systems I think).

We had to call back retired guys and reservists. Most of the nozzles on the fronts of the Vulcans had been filled with concrete. A vital component that couldn't be found to reproduce was finally located being used as a doorstop! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2Yl8ntVS-4

 

[ProDave]

Remember 5 years ago we scrapped and cut up our Nimrod fleet?

Well it seems we do after all need a reconnaissance aircraft fleet, so we are now going to buy some shiny new Boeing  Posieden's 

I can't be alone in thinking we should have just kept the Nimrods?