Briefings : Talent, Marines, Hawk

• RN submarine HMS Talent is taking part in war games with the Indian Navy. The Telegraph is reporting that the RN are furious at this leak of details as the whereabouts of Royal Navy ships is usually not disclosed... apart from on the many news stories published on the MOD's own website of course.
• The Royal Marines of the Fleet Protection Group has also been in training in a variety of vessels including jet-skis in rather less warm waters, the Clyde to be exact.
• Part of the RAF's Hawk trainer fleet has been grounded following problems found with the elector seat on one aircraft during an inspection. All aircraft with a Mark 10 ejector seat will not be cleared to fly until they have been inspected.
• Part of the latest Astute submarine Audacious has been moved between different parts of BAE Systems facilities in Barrow. The 800 ton section had to be moved along the road, as you can imagine it had right-of-way.
• Flight tests for the STOVL JSF fighter, which the UK will buy, are behind schedule because of a higher than expected failure rate of components.

Briefings : Trident cuts, RN cuts, CVF

• The RUSI has called on the UK nuclear deterrent to be cut to save costs. It says there is no longer a need to maintain a continuous patrol. This would delay the need to order a replacement for the Vanguard fleet and one presumes 3 ships could be bought instead of 4.
• The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force could bear the brunt of cuts in the strategic defence review according to reports. The RN could lose its base at Plymouth and 8 minesweepers. Though local MPs say they will fight to save Devonport. Much of this is inter-service jockeying of course.
• The MOD is investing in an electromagnetic catapult system for its Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers just in case its procurement of STOVL JSFs fail. Construction of the first carrier has begun at Birkenhead.
• Boeing is trying to extend the C-17's production life with a "slimmer" version. The C-17FE is a more fuel efficient version with a narrower fuselage and improved engines and wings. Ironically Lockheed are looking at a wider version of its iconic Hercules.

Briefings : Army cuts, Arms sales, Co-op

• The UK could cut it's troop numbers by 30,000 and place the Royal Marines under Army control under one option being drawn up in the strategic defence review. However an army source said that would be unlikely to happen while fighting was continuing in Afghanistan.
• India is to sign a £500 million deal with BAE Systems for Hawk trainer jets it is reported during the Prime Ministers' trip to India this week.
• Kuwait has shown an interest in the F-15SE Silent Eagle to augment its current fleet of Hornets. Saudi Arabia plans to buy 84 F-15s along with 72 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.
• France and Germany have set up a co-operation working group to look at ways to save costs by pooling resources. 
• Myanmar is said to be working on nuclear weapons.

Afghan War Leaks

The big news today of course is the leak of thousands of documents on the Afghanistan War by Wikileaks. The leaks detail the hundreds of civilian casualties caused by NATO forces in unreported incidents and the rise in Taleban bombs against NATO troops. 90,000 records were released by Wikileaks and a number of newspapers were given access beforehand so they could produce reports like this.

The leaks detail how the Taleban are using SAMs to shoot at NATO aircraft, US special forces embark on missions to capture or kill leaders in the insurgency and that Pakistan's intelligence agency is backing the Taleban. It has also been reported that the UK's GCHQ is helping the US pinpoint Taleban and al-Qaeda leaders for attacks by drones.

Much of the information dates from earlier in the war and many details were perhaps already assumed but this will be a torrent of bad press for the Allies.

RAF offer to scrap Nimrod and Tornado

The RAF have offered up the new Nimrod MRA4 and the Tornado GR4 fleets as a sacrifice to save billions of pounds over the long run. The cuts were offered by the RAF as part of the government's strategic defence review and would hit Scotland hard with the closure of a base and the scrapping of an expansion of another. It is thought the RAF are playing the game though as one of the Nimrods' major roles is to protect the Navy's Trident submarines and it is likely the Navy would oppose such a cut. The Tornado cut, which would be within 5 years, is more likely however as the planes would be nearing the ends of their lives by then anyway. Although their official withdrawal date is 2025 it is thought they will be out of hours some time before that.

Video : Farnborough Air Show 1950

With Farnborough now on lets go back to a slightly earlier time...

Briefings : Gripen NG, Canada JSF, CVF

• The Gripen NG Demo aircraft is coming to Farnborough after a late change of plans. Sweden are now talking openly about their plans to procure the next generation Gripen with a decision to be taken next year or 2012 with the first Gripen NGs entering service with the Swedish Air Force in 2020.
• Canada has announced it will buy 65 F-35 JSFs to replace its F-18 fighter fleet. It is the first firm export committment for the type and will be welcome news after recent flakiness by other customers.
• The Telegraph has a series of pictures from the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier under construction and a round-up report. Meanwhile the Artisan 3D radar which will be fitted to the QE class is under test.
  
  
  
• The Guardian has picked up on the fact the Treasury and MOD are in conflict over who should be paying for the Trident nuclear submarine replacements.
• Defense Tech is asking if the US are finally changing their policy of gold plating every procurement programme with the CSAR-X search and rescue helicopter. We'll believe that when we see it.
• The latest country to reduce its defence budget is... Israel. Its the first time the Jewish state's defence budget will be reduced for years.

Briefings : Trident costs, Anglo-French Co-op, Gripen-NG

• The UK Treasury is asking the MOD to see if the costs of replacing the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent can come out of the MOD budget and not a separate ring-fenced budget outside of the core MOD budget. Meanwhile the mirage of only buying 3 submarines not 4 has come up again but i thought they found the cost savings were fairly small overall and the loss of flexibility and cover fairly big?
• The UK and France are to launch a study into military co-operation. The two countries will see which competencies can be shared and which cannot. One area of co-operation could be in buying inflight refuelling tankers as both the UK and France plan to buy the A330 based MRTT.
• Sweden will buy the Gripen-NG Saab say though a formal announcement has not yet been made. Saab are confident Gripen will be in Swedish service beyond 2040 and Gripen-NG could be bought before the end of the decade.
• Royal Navy Sea King pilots have been training for their forthcoming deployment to Helmand province in California.
  
  
  

Haig World War 1 Collection on Flickr

The National Library of Scotland have added 2000 photographs to Flickr's public Commons collection. The most interesting photographs are probably the ones from the papers of the papers of Field Marshal Haig, an extraordinary set of photos from the fighting in World War 1.

Taranis revealed

The BAE Systems Taranis stealth UCAV demonstrator has been rolled out ahead of a planned first flight in 2011. Part of Taranis' purpose is to prove the UK can develop a stealth UCAV and if the UK decides to go ahead with Taranis a production version could be in service before the end of the decade. That will depend on a number of factors however such as money.

Briefings : Bomb disposal, M51, Sky Warrior

• Dragon Runner counter-IED robots have been criticised as useless by unnamed members of the Army bomb disposal team. The main problem appears to be it can't move over uneven ground. Which would seem to be a bit of a drawback in Afghanistan.
• France has test fired a M51 SLBM from the submarine Le Terrible. The unarmed missile test is intended to validate the missile under operational conditions.
  
  
• The Block 1 MQ-1C Sky Warrior UCAV for the US Army has entered production. 34 Sky Warriors will be built in total. The Sky Warrior will fulfill the armed MALE role and replace the RQ-5 Hunter and RQ-7 Shadow.
• Norway has launched (or rather an Indian rocket has) the AISSat-1 ship-tracking satellite. The nano-sat (a 20cm cube) will track ships in Norwegian territorial waters by picking up the signals from their AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponders.

Briefings : UK Afghanistan kit, Tejas, CH-53K

• £189 million worth of new equipment is to be provided from reserve funds for British troops in Afghanistan. The bulk of the money is going on improved communications and ISTAR equipment though also extra body armour, gunsights and logistics will be bought. British troops are to leave Sangin this year and be redeployed to the central part of Helmand.
• India has rolled out the Naval version of it's Tejas fighter. NP1 is a two-seat trainer and has a number of changes over the land-based Tejas apart from the usual (stronger landing gear, arrester hook) including a leading edge vortex controller to cut speed on approach and nose modifications to improve downward visability. NP1 is due to fly before the end of the year.
  
  
• Germany, Israel and Taiwan are very interested in the forthcoming CH-53K heavy lift helicopter due to enter service with the US Marines late in this decade.
• Twenty armoured cars, used on the streets of Northern Ireland, have been drafted into help police on the British mainland catch a gunman on the run in Northumberland.

Briefings : Brimstone, French defence cuts, Military blogging (updated)

• A new version of the Brimstone guided missile is to be tested on RAF Tornado GR4s. The tests will be carried out in 2011 to clear the missile ahead of it entering service with the RAF at a later date. The new version of Brimstone is intended for a "low-collateral, precision-attack capability deployable against manoeuvring and fixed targets in short- to medium-range close air support or counter-insurgency operations". So it should enter service just in time for our pull out from Afghanistan.
  
• France is to cut it's defence spending by 3.5 billion euros as part of it's efforts to cut it's deficit. That amounts to less than 4% of the defence budget and may be off-set by some asset sales. Current procurement programmes will not be affected it is claimed.
• The Dutch may pull out of the JSF's initial operational test and evaluation phase. Spain is reducing it's P-3 upgrade programme to just 4 aircraft.
• In comparion to recent moves by the Chinese military to ban it's personnel from blogging the British forces in Afghanistan have launched a mass blogging initiative by personnel writing regular posts from the front line. Posts have been written by personnel from the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
• The 1940 sinking of the British troopship Lancastria saw the loss of up to 6000 lives and is Britain's worst naval disaster yet news of the loss was suppressed at the time to not give the Germans a propaganda coup. Survivors and supporters are now trying to get the ship's resting place recognised as a war grave. 
• The first Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring is linked to the city of Birmingham (my home) apparently. City dignitaries including the Lord Mayor were given a tour of the new ship.
• Freeze the wages of public sector workers, hooray! Wait that includes 140,000 service personnel, boooo!

MOD signs contract for ASCOD SV

The MOD have signed a £500 million contract with General Dynamics UK for the development phase of a new Scout armoured fighting vehicle. The Scout is derived from the ASCOD SV which is already used by some NATO armies. The MOD contract will result in 7 development vehicles, eventually the Scout will replace the Scimitar in Army service.

In related news the awarding of the armoured vehicle contract to General Dynamics UK has led BAE Systems to close it's Radar Road plant in Leicester after they were unsuccessful in bidding for this contract.

Briefings : Drug haul, Mantis, B-1B

• T42 destroyer HMS Manchester has helped capture drugs in the Caribbean worth £1.5 million in the UK. A Lynx helicopter from the destroyer detected a drug runner's speed boat off the island of Montserrat and directed a police boat to intercept. Twelve 25KG bales of cannabis were later found.

• BAE Systems has completed a successful flight test programme with it's Mantis MALE UAV demonstrator in Australia and has now been returned to the UK. It will be rebuilt ready for some further ground based testing. Its not known if it will fly again. BAE will roll out it's Taranis UCAV demonstrator later this month.

• Britain and Spain are meanwhile engaged in a spat over the use of airspace by British military airspace for exercises off Gibraltar. 
• South Korea wants a big increase in it's defence spending to boost it's armed forces in the face of a greater threat from the North. 
• The B-1B fleet is being considered as the sacrificial lamb as the USAF looks at cuts but the bomber has received some support from the new commander of forces in Afghanistan General Petraeus.