Briefings : Iraqi Hawks, Taiwan kickbacks, USN cuts

Iraq is considering buying the BAE Systems Hawk as it's advanced trainer as it gradually rebuilds it's air force in a deal that could be worth over a billion pounds. Iraqi Air Force officials will visit Britain later this year to test fly the trainer.

French defence giant Thales has been ordered to pay damages to the Taiwanese government after being found guilty of using bribes to secure a contract for 6 frigates back in 1991. The total Thales might have to pay out could be as high as a billion dollars.

Is the US Navy in line for some big cuts? Secretary of Defence Gates is reported to have questioned the need for so many carrier battle groups and whether the US could afford so many multi-billion dollar programmes. One future weapon system said to be under review is the Ohio SSBN replacement. This has implications for the Royal Navy's Successor ballistic missile submarine programme of course.

Briefings : Iraq, A400M, Iran missile

Today the PM had to face the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry, what he said was no surprise really. He said the decision to overthrow Saddam was right, he rejected he had starved the military of funds while Chancellor and that the military got everything they asked for. He admitted the reconstruction phase had been badly planned though tried to blame the Americans for that.

EADS have struck a deal with it's European partners over the A400M to amend the contract. Though Spain want the UK to reduce the amount of work it gets out of the project unless it pays more.

Jane's say the next generation Iranian missile / space launch vehicle Simorgh shows similarities with the North Korean Unha-2 missile. The USAF is considering whether to keep the production tooling for the F-22 after production ceases. Russia will destroy all of it's chemical weapons by 2012.

Briefings : Sonar upgrade, Iraq, Falklands

Three Trafalgar and three Astute submarines are to have their Sonar 2076 ..er.. sonars upgraded to Stage 5. The upgrade further improved performance, reduces long-term costs and improved fleet commonality through the use of open architecture. Though its not all good news for UK submarines as BAE Systems Submarine Solutions at Barrow are to cut 230 jobs because of delays in ordering the rest of the Astute programme it claims.

Iraq wants the return of $898 million from France which the Saddam Hussein regime paid for Mirage fighter jets which were never delivered because of sanctions raised when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. I suspect Iraq may be waiting awhile. The Airborne Laser fitted to a 747 has successfully shot down a liquid fuel missile.

Argentina is blocking a transport ship from leaving for the Falkland Islands with a cargo of metal tubes which it claims will be used for "illegal" drilling activity off the islands it still claims. Election due soon in Argentina or something?

Briefings : Labour green paper, QDR, AEW

Labour will commit to major defence projects like CVF according to a Defence Green Paper and will rule out defence cuts until next year, even though they are already happening.  Meanwhile at the Iraq enquiry the head of the armed forces has said that the rush to the (Iraq) war meant that not enough body armour could be sourced for British troops.

The US have revealed their latest QDR (Quadrennial Defence Review - which is an excellent idea by the way the UK should adopt). It calls for the US armed forces to be highly flexible and able to handle a wide range of situations from major wars to homeland defence. One loser will be CGX though.

The chief of the troubled F-35 project has been fired by the US Defence secretary. Lockheed Martin have also had money with held. Is the JSF a project that is too big to fail? US Patriot missiles are being deployed to Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait to protect against Iranian missile attack.

At the Singapore Air Show the Singapore Air Force has shown off it's new G550 AEW platform for the first time.

Briefings (04/01/10) : Iraq, Chinook, Airships

In December there were no US combat fatalities in Iraq, the first time there haven't been since the start of the war in Iraq. Though there were 3 non-combat fatalities, and a huge number of Iraqis killed of course. Think Defence looks at the Royal Navy's efforts to replace it's current escort fleet with Type 45 and FSC.

Flight's DEW Line blog asks how serious the US are about airships and includes a recent USN presentation on the subject. Former Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind writes in the Telegraph that a defence review must reflect policy not budgets, i hope he tells that to his mate the shadow chancellor.

The BBC are claiming the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash, that claimed 29 lives, may have been caused by software faults after getting hold of a document that spoke of problems with the engine control on the Mark 2 Chinook.