U.S. Marine Corps Declares the F-35B Operational https://www.f35.com/news/detail/u.s.-marine-corps-declares-the-f-35b-operational?sf11529929=1 Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (VMFA-121), based in Yuma, Arizona, is the first squadron in military history to become operational with an F-35 variant,...

ACA July Monthly News letter is up.

It looks like the Radar is working, CB04 A and B are on there way to Rosyth as well!

Dammed if you do dammed if you don't

more than likely

The Germans dont use the mk41 or caam so i dont see that helping things, I aways wondered if when the production of the type 26 is in full swing it might help export orders.

BAE Shops Type 26 Ship Design to Germany http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/naval/ships/2015/07/25/bae-seeks-new-market--type-26-frigate--germany/30513361/ German plans to acquire a fleet of new combat ships through a European competition have opened the door to a possible sale of the British...

fair enough i guess the more unique parts would still be made in the uk then shipped there and we might even get Australia involved with sea ceptre program as well

Sounds like potential good news, but would we allow Australia to built New Zealand as well?

From Gab's twitter.

It seems that the Long Range Radar on HMS Queen Elizabeth's forward island has gone live and is being tested. Another step forwards.

Nice shot of the F-35 from twitter

I very happy with this news (especially SPEAR 3) but I feel we are neglecting the F-35 a bit here.

SPEAR 3 will be a powered release, is that drop and motor ignition but with no seeking to target or so forth?

Part of me still cant believe we are buying new MPA aircraft I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

rec wrote:Also it just makes sense not to put all our shipbuilding eggs in the River Clyde Basket, it would be better still if we had an additional ship builder to BAE.

Don't we have all our Sub building eggs at Barrow?

Some talk of us flying drones from out carriers, any idea what kind they are thinking about?

While that might be true, this might not be true in the future and we would then need to start our own R&D most likely at high costs to upgrade a limited number of units, by using some of the American systems we can piggy back on to their R&D at hopefully a reduced cost to us. What we really...

Could we (the UK) use our current stocks of Harpoon missiles if we were to go down the P-8 route?

Wow that's a big price difference between the P1 and P8, is the P8 $100 million better?

How many MPA would we be looking to buy?

. Spuriously could it also mean RN might be the operator rather than RAF ?? The RAF have staff with other countries using MPA, the Navy doesn't have any staff training for it (that I know of) so the chance of the navy getting it are slim. Could it not just be that we're keeping Japan on the hook to...

Nice pics, can any one remember when LB04 is getting transported to Rosyth, also what is the white tent for behind POW?

I surprised they used the lift fan I thought with the ramp they wouldn't need too? Might just have been for safety reasons but still.

how effective as an air defence aircraft will the F35b be? I guess it depends what you are judging it against, with Radar guided and heat seeking missiles, better range and faster, stealth (not the end all be all of the aircraft) and a lot of other modern systems build in it will be better than the...

Was the Paveway IV guided or just a release?

I wonder if the P8 will be the carrot in the up coming SDR "We are cutting all this but don't worry we are buying 6 P8 with the possibility of more"

Asture Class x7 Unit cost=747 Total cost=5229 Unit ops=27 Total ops=189 Vanguard Class x4 Unit cost=1500 Total cost=6000 Unit ops=35 Total ops=140 QE Class x3 Unit cost=3000 Total cost=9000 Unit ops=90 Total ops=270 Ocean Class x2 Unit cost=280 Total cost=560 Unit ops=38 Total ops=76 Albion Class x2...