Daring into action

Although not in service yet the first Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring has been called into action to come to the rescue of a fishing boat that ran into trouble off the island of Arran. The destroyer picked up a distress call from the Irish trawler Paloma at the end of August and went to give assistance while waiting for the arrival of life boats from Arran and Troon.

British troops in Zimbabwe?

The new Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which is signing a power sharing deal with Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF today, apparently wishes the return of a British Army team to help train the Zimbabwean army. The MDC no doubt wishes to temper the actions of the army which has often been involved in violence against the MDC. It would be a tough call though considering the antagonism between Mugabe and Britain lately and his claims Britian wished to make Zimbabwe a colony again.


"I'm all for it as long as they give us some toys too, a squadron of Typhoons and a division of Challenger 2s should suffice."

BAE review Astute programme

The troubled Astute SSN programme will be reviewed by BAE Systems following the discovery of further problems that could delay the introduction of the submarine into service, the review will attempt to miminise the impact of the problems. Rising costs and technical problems have created a rift between the MOD and BAE but BAE are still confident Astute will make it's "timetable of 2009".

TU-160s into Venezuela

Two Russian Air Force Tupolev TU-160 Blackjack strategic bombers have made the flight over to Venezuela for "military maneuvers". Its the first time Russian bombers have landed in the western hemisphere since the Cold War, but despite the rising tensions we arn't quite at Cold War 2.0 yet. NATO fighters escorted the 2 bombers on their flight over the Artic and Atlantic oceans, the Russians are not saying if the bombers are carrying live weapons.



Venezuelan President Chavez was delighted of course, "The Yankee hegemony is finished," he said. So there.

A tale of 2 AWACS upgrades

Boeing has completed flight systems testing of the Block 40/45 E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft. The upgrade includes a new computer architecture replacing the existing mainframe with open system network servers. The new system also includes better data linking and an improved user interface, well lets hope this new system is up to the job, so often "old iron" is replaced by fancy new boxen which cause no end of trouble, or is that just the software engineer in me talking. The USAF are also looking into upgrading the actual aircraft themselves (Airframe Modernization Program (AMP)) with glass cockpits and maybe new engines.



Meanwhile Russia has started testing a modernisation upgrade of it's A-50M Mainstay AWACS, as with the Sentry the focus of the upgrade has been in replacing legacy analogue systems with digital ones.

New Army trucks head to Helmand

40 of the UK's latest support vehicles have embarked on a transport ship for deployment to Afghanistan where they will support 3 Commando Brigade. The new trucks have better protection, are more reliable and have better air conditioning (important for operation in Afghanistan's deserts). The vehicles are part of a £1.3 billion procurement in 7000 vehicles and 200 of these vehicles will be deployed to Afghanistan.

Russia to centralise production of amphibious aircraft

I have a weakness for flying boats i admit, the fact Russia is setting up a single centre for the development and production of flying boats and amphibious aircraft made me smile. The centre will include Beriev of course and the Tavia production plant with a testing base at Gelenzhik on the Black Sea. Production initially will be of the A-42 Albatros, Be103 and Be-200 and newer designs. As well as new aircraft the facility will maintain, repair and modernise existing aircraft. This is all part of the re-organisation of Russian aircraft production as the United Aircraft Corporation.


A-40 "Mermaid"

Be-200 Altair

Be-103