Briefings (16/01/10) : Trident, Typhoon engines, JSF

The Conservatives (who are - probably - likely to form the next UK government) say they will delay the Trident replacement by 5 years though this will face resistance from the Royal Navy, UK ship building industry and even the shadow chancellor so things could change. Some Tories want SLBMs replaced with an air launched cruise missile system to maintain the nuclear deterrent. One benefit of delaying though would mean the new boats would come in at the same time as the US' Ohio replacement which could mean we could share some aspects of the design (well we are already).

Rolls Royce have been awarded a 10 year £865 million contract to provide long-term support for the Eurojet EJ200 engines powering the RAF's fleet of Typhoons.

Britain says the European partners in the A400M project remain committed to the airlifter but "not at any price".

The US Navy are now also looking at the rising costs of the JSF with concern and are warning that the F-35B/C are becoming harder to afford citing the JSF will be twice as expensive to fly compared to the Harrier and Hornet. The latest cyber attack is a hacking of the PEO Soldier Army military equipment website though a Lebanese hacker is claiming credit for this one. Meanwhile the US is to set up a cyber defence team to protect the US electric grid from cyber attack.

Japan has ended it's refuelling mission of ships involved with the Afghanistan operation. Japan has supported the US led mission since 2001 but will now concentrate on reconstruction work in Afganistan itself.