Britain and France will not share carriers... but may share A400M

So Britain and France won't share a pool of aircraft carriers, well it was always going to have been unlikely (but may have been fun from a twisted outsider point of view). Instead the UK and France will be looking at how to share their respective fleets of A400M transports (does that mean they'll be able to get away with buying less?)

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 : Typhoon, CVF, Defence review

BAE Systems has won a support deal with the UK, Germany and Spain for avionics on the 3 countries fleets of Typhoons worth £150 million. Meanwhile Romania is the latest export target for the Eurofighter consortium who are trying to get the government to change a planned purchase for F-16s into ex-Italian Air Force Typhoons instead.

The new UK coalition government has said the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers currently being built for the Royal Navy are "safe" (or built anyway). Plans to move HMS Sultan, the RN's engineering training school, from Portsmouth to Wales may also be shelved.

The new Defence Secretary meanwhile said that resources would be tight over the next few years and a Strategic Defence Review would take place. He said "the needs of our armed forces can no longer be considered in isolation from other security challenges we face".

CVF progress

Rolls-Royce have delivered the first parts in it's £96 million contract to supply equipment for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. A pair of Neptune stabilising fins were delivered to BVT's shipyard in Govan. Rolls Royce will also be supplying the MT30 gas turbines and propeller sysyem as well as the rudders.

Carriers over budget

The RN's flagship project, the 2 CVF aircraft carriers, is under threat again after it was disclosed the project is running £1 billion over budget. The cost of the project is now estimated at £5 billion, the increase said to be due to inflation, accounting adjustments and direct costs. Maybe they should have costed it correctly in the first place. These cost increases put the programme under pressure it has been said in a memo by the contractors.

Personally i'd ditch Prince Of Wales and build a new ship along the lines of Ocean or Ark Royal to serve as an LPH/Reserve carrier. Wouldn't it be nice for once if a military project came in on budget?

Fleet Air Arm bomb Sweden

HMS Illustrious has taken part in the Loyal Arrow war games in the Baltic. Harriers from the Naval Strike Wing bombed targets in Sweden including using Paveway IVs.

Loyal Arrow ran from June 8th to the 18th and involved 10 NATO and non-NATO countries.

Army, Navy war of words over the carriers

The heads of the British Army and Royal Navy have engaged in a war of words over the forthcoming CVF aircraft carriers. The head of the Army General Sir Richard Dannatt said the carriers were irrelevant to modern warfare (which must be news to the US Navy and the Indian and Chinese navies who are going flat out to build carriers). Admiral Sir Jonathon Band replied that Britain would need high end capabilities in the future. There was some analogy involving golf as well which i won't repeat here!

100 years of Royal Navy flying

On 7th May 1909 the Admiralty placed an order for it's first aircraft, an airship. Now 100 years later the Royal Navy is celebrating 100 years of aviation, through the RNAS to the Fleet Air Arm, such that it is these days.



The Royal Navy has often been at the forefront of Naval aviation including the first take-off of an aircraft from a moving ship in 1912, angled flightdecks and steam catapults which defined carrier design post war and of course VTOL aircraft in the shape of the Harrier and ski-jumps.



A number of events are being held across the country, HMS Illustrious is currently docked in London and there have been a number of flyovers by current and former FAA aircraft including the Sea Vixen.

CVF to be delayed

The government are out to save money again (well the country is hurtling towards bankruptcy anyway so why bother?) The new aircraft carriers due to arrive in 2014 and 2016 may now be delayed for a year or two. JSF is already going to delayed so this might not be too big a problem considering Harrier will be on it's last legs by the end of the next decade there might not be any aircraft around anyway. The scary thing is what else might be in the "cost cutting plans". Future Lynx apparently will survive but may be cut in numbers "slightly".

UK to buy 3 JSF for carrier trials

The UK is expected to buy 3 early production F-35s for a joint test team for initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). The UK is already preparing for when it embarks F-35Bs on it's new carriers, the CVF, which will begin building next year. HMS Illustrious is currently host to the VAAC Harrier (below) testbed to help develop a rolling vertical take off technique for the future JSF fleet.



An 11 day "visualisation and experimentation exercise" has recently been concluded to simulate the operation of the JSF on the CVF (say that 3 times fast, while drunk). The exercise saw 8-12 sorties "performed" a day to see how operations could be sustained with the type. This apparently allowed BAE to "de-risk" the applications, oh how i love that word de-risk!