The Prince of Wales

[Chopper]

Sister ship, Paul?

[paul463]

Yeah mate, the Elizabeth is almost complete.

[Quickfire]

Those boats are but sections bolted together.

One gusset-rustler torpedo or even but a pisspot ancien Exocet and all the halves or thirds will shake apart.

Anyway, more anon

[Quickfire]

There will only be c. 12 F35s on each carrier. Each should be able to handle something like 60 or 70.

The targeting systems in the nose of the F35 will be 90s spec. Will have to be separately upgraded later. Only after the obsolete systems have already been manufactured and installed on all of the new planes.

Alleged stealth features are already obsolete.

Can probably find the wrong goat herder and zap them with an obsolete LGB or a Brimstone though c. 2020.

... if the fuel is not too hot and it's not a VTOL version and has just been fully refitted and the engine doesn't shut down after three hours.

[paul463]

Good assessment Quickie. One thing they are struggling with is they can't get paint for the deck that won't melt with the heat.

I say fit them with cats and traps and put F 18's on them

[Chopper]

F-18's are already ancient technology. Even the Rhino's ain't a pup anymore, they are 20 year's old now. I think they would have done better to design a whole new VTOL solution.

Be grateful you have an airforce.

[paul463]

True mate, it's a much smaller Air Force though.

There are now reports that the F 35 won't be able to fire its gun due to a computer problem, resolution by 2019.

[Chopper]

That could be a problem, the RAAF has them listed for service by 2018.

[Quickfire]

Look upon the prosperous field of UK air power, re-assembled from a schei**box of scrapped parts, gaze upon the sea of f*gs any number of enemies gives, wonder at it.

The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) reformed 12 (Bomber) Squadron as its third Panavia Tornado GR.4 unit on 12 January, less than a year after it was disbanded.

The ceremony, which took place at RAF Marham in Norfolk, occurred just nine months after 12 (B) Squadron concluded its final operational mission in support of Operation 'Herrick' in Afghanistan. The unit will join 9 and 31 Squadrons in seeing the Tornado through to retirement in 2019.

On the same day that 12 (B) Squadron was reconstituted as a Tornado unit, the RAF rerolled 2 (Army Co-operation) Squadron to be the United Kingdom's fifth Eurofighter Typhoon unit. Having previously flown Tornado GR.4s at RAF Marham, 2 (AC) Squadron will now be based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

http://www.janes.com/article/47823/uk-r ... rnado-unit

Can't even get a fr%ikin cock-wombling baroque rust bucket out of Faslane without assistance from a nation that has fl*cked up anti-submarine warfare for almost a century to sort of pretend it's safe to go.

MoD asks [AGAIN!] for American help in searching for Russian submarine near Scotland

Angus Robertson, the Scottish National Party’s defence spokesman and MP for Moray, said the US deployment showed that Britain had resorted to going to its allies with a “begging bowl”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 66080.html

[paul463]

Aye 12 Sqn standing up again is a bit of an embarrassment. The maratime recon that's a problem which will go away at this years SDSR