Posts by SkippyBing 2378 publicly visible posts • joined 21 May 2008
It depends what they're paying for. E.g. does the headline Norwegian price include a support package for x years where the RN one doesn't? Given the RN have already partly paid is it all in the same year currency, otherwise inflation plays a part in the headline figure.
'recently shown by the arrest of over 500 peaceful protesters whose only crime was to hold up hand-written signs protesting the genocide in Gaza.'
No, the crime was holding up a sign supporting a proscribed terrorist group. If they'd just held up signs protesting about Gaza there wouldn't have been a problem. But for some reason they wanted to be edgy.
We are already buying F-35Bs, this is just swapping the model. Like asking BMW to change your order from a 330 to a 325. So no more money is going to the USA. In fact initially less becuase the F-35A is cheaper than the B. Servicing of engines etc. will be as for the rest of the fleet.
And the Italian Navy, and soon the Japanese, with Spain and South Korea toying with the idea.
To answer your question as with all things Government and MOD is in year spending. Adding catapults and arrestor gear to the carrier would make them cost more than the Treasury were willing to pay in any one year during the decade they were being built. So instead the slighter greater costs of VSTOL have been spread over the purchase of 'up to' 130 F-35s over a longer period.
Many years ago I worked in tech support in France so long ago I think el Reg had only just started. I found it much easier to set the keyboard as QWERTY so I could still touch type rather than learn how to do it on an AZERTY one. With the bonus it drove anyone who tried using my machine mad.
This also helped many years later when a colleague tried to get revenge for some minor misdeed by moving by keys around. Took about a week before I noticed.
I have to assume they wanted to minimise/eliminate through hull openings. So the Bluetooth controller allowed them to communicate through hull to all the stuff bolted on the outside without having to seal a gland. They probably thought it was a genius move that the world's navies are idiots for not using...
I am idly wondering which legal jurisdiction any contract/waiver fell under? If they signed at sea would it be the state of registration of the ship, international waters in which case no jurisdiction, or have they explicitly stated on the paperwork it's considered to have been signed in a favourably lenient location?
They are also the only organisation I know that takes four weeks to mark multiple-choice exam papers, with a computer. Whereas at the time the German equivalent would tell you that day if you'd passed.
Or the time they told me they couldn't issue my licence because I hadn't crossed their palms with silver. Which was odd as I had a month old receipt saying I had...
Having been on a few warships I'd be impressed if they go 3 days without some sort of electrical or mechanical break down that needs human intervention, never-mind 30. Also although minimal crewing sounds like a great idea if you're on fire or flooding you want as many trained people as you can to throw at the problem to make it go away. See HMS Nottingham vs Australia in 2002.
From the book on Project Orion by Dyson's son the estimate was 1 additional death, somewhere on Earth, per launch. For the time at least the 'bomb' designs were relatively clean in terms of fall out as I understand it, but a lot of the project is still classified as small lightweight nuclear propulsion systems may have other non-peaceful uses...
Good explanation of how it works here: https://breakingdefense.com/2021/09/blowin-in-the-wind-a-new-x-plane-program-to-revolutionize-aircraft-maneuverability/
Quite different to the reaction control system on the Harrier which pushes the aircraft around rather than messing with the airflow.
Re weapons it would appear due to the boom and bust nature of defence procurement it seems a lot of the sub-sub-contractors no longer exist so getting some niche parts for more advanced stuff like Javelin is basically impossible. So it's basically a case of starting from scratch.
The App was not £37 Billion. That was the total put aside for two years, including all those test kits that were being freely handed out. Is £37 Billion a lot of money? Yes. Was it all wisely spent? Probably not, it was a global pandemic*. Was it all spent on an App? Definitely not.
*If you're one of those types who likes to compare it to a war you should see how much was wasted in WW2 buying aircraft that weren't fit for their intended role and just went to be target tugs or similar.
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