Posts by Fredly

MPs slam 'disgraceful' Type 45 destroyers

@Michael

You make some good points my friend, particularly in regard to the government refusing to fund T45s arsenal.

One point I would make though is, shipborne torpedoes are a waste of time - if a sub is that close you've already had it. Helo drops are the way forward, so actually this was a good bit of money saving.

The other point I'd make is about Harpoon. Whislt I don't know this for a fact, I should imagine the Americans took one look at the hundreds, if not thousands, of Harpoons lining their fleets upper works and thought "d'ya know, how many of these do we realisitcally need!"

re:re:utter garbage

I agree totally, but air power alone is not the solution, hostile aircraft can and will break the fighter screen. Air defences are layered, and SAM is the next stage after CAP, and after that you have CIWS (last ditch radar or optically guided short range gun or missile system to the uninitiated).

You need to have the whole package, using your football analogy, you need a midfield, defence and goalkeeper. Saying get more assault ships, without balancing your screening requirements is suicidal.

The sad fact is lessons learnt during the Falklands conflict regarding AEW and CAP have been forgotten / overlooked. I think we're prob arguing the same point.

re:re:utter garbage

even if you pay double that today it still means you could get three helicopter carriers for the price of one Type 45; ask the Marines which they would rather have.

Ask the Welsh Guards on RFA Sir Galahad what they would rather have had, a nice shiny assault ship, or a destroyer that would've stopped them being fried to a crisp.

Utter Garbage

Well as my last post didn't get allowed cause people don't like criticism I'll try again......

"A) If it kicks off in the next two years, these ships will be lucky to last 35-55 minutes"

I think you'll find if a major conflict kicked off in the next 2 years, the missiles would become available PDQ. Seadart wasn't fully operational prior to the Falkalnds but they still managed a few kills with it.

"Without carriers the Royal Navy is toothless, even if these ships worked 110% the Navy will be unable to provide any useful military capability other than self defence; air support? seaborne assault? Attacking targets more than 20km inland? The Navy isn't really equipped for these roles"

Oh really, so Royal Marines didn't attack Afghanistan and Iraq from the decks of RN assault ships and aircraft carriers? Tomahawk and the Naval Strike WIng can't attack more than 20Km inland? Whilst not geared up for land attack in a huge way, it does have the ability to do it. Take a proper look at the composition of the RN before you make bland statements. But you are correct in that the RN desperately needs Air Cover from a carrier air wing.

"However you do need escorts in a navy where the best route to a brass hat is via command of an escort"

All medium sized ships are able to perform a variety of roles, including anti piracy/terror, counter narcotics, and disaster / humanitarian relief. The escorts did a good job of rescuing British citizens from Lebanon a couple of years back. Senior Officers from the Warfare Dept have to be able to prove their competency of command at all levels, starting with small ship command all the way up to aircraft carriers and assault ships and then Task Groups. Would you accept an infantryman becoming a General having never commanded an infantry regiment?!

There are problems with T45, buying the French launchers instead of American Mk41 launchers could well prove to be an expensive mistake - however the MoD couldn't justify spending the extra money because it has been decided that currently there is no requirement for T45 to carry Tomahawk, these are carried by fleet submarines. You can blame the MoD for a lot (and I do) but you CANNOT blame them for Defence Policy, all they do is implement it.

People who have never even seen a warship, let alone know what they do or what constitutes a good one, but feel they can comment on the back of some negative press really make me mad. There are plenty of good articles both for and against T45 elsewhere on the net, don't just believe 1 person's biased opinion.

NASA takes stick over feet and inches

UK's romantic notions

"The sooner the US and UK drop their pathetic romantic notions towards imperial measurements the better. When was the weights and measures act? 1969?"

All I can say to you is, I started primary education in 1981 and I have NEVER been taught anything in Imperial (that's right IMPERIAL not ENGLISH! English is a language not a measurement system).

There may be a few "old and bolds" out there who find it tricky to change, but I'll think you'll find nearly every, if not every single, new piece of hardware designed in the UK has SI measurements. Any that don't are almost exclusively legacy items, designed to fit in with old systems.

F-22 may live on: Cheap secondhand Eurofighters on offer

@Francis

"There is no reasonable expectation that these planes will ever see active service"

Oh really, I guess the US and other NATO allies aren't using air power in Afghanistan, and that the next time we are required to go to war they won't be used either.

Do you think North Korea or Iran would be worried about us if we had a few P40 Lightnings or B17s from WWII?

In fact, the leaders of these countries seem like nice guys, perhaps we should just ask them to play nicely?

Is Lewis feeling ok?

My gosh, Lewis actually said something complimentary about part of the UK's orbat!

Yes Eurofighter is only the second best a2a fighter but given that it costs half that of the Raptor, which isn't twice as good, it represents strong value for money. Several countries are seriously looking at Eurofighter for their needs, including Turkey, Oman and Japan and export sales look promising.

Experts from the RAF claim Eurofighter could do a very good job in Af'stan mud moving and that the name "austere" is misleading

Israeli robo-kamikaze selling like hot exploding cakes

Questions

How many munitions are the Turks getting for their reported $100M?

How does the German versions capability differ to the capability offered by Tomohawk?

When was the last GMLRS fired in anger? And how quickly could the Americans re-supply us?

Why buy non re-usable self propelled munitions when Predator UAVs can perform surveillance and strike and be re-used?

You state "IFPA is slated to cost at least £500m overall" yet this figure somehow magically doubles a few lines later "Rather, the £1bn of IFPA cash is being spent in accordance with..."

What is the true figure?

Broadband tax of £6 per year to fund rural fibre rollout

@ Callum

Scotland isn't being double charged - you haven't even paid in the first place. English taxpayers have paid for your broadband access. Do some research about where your funding comes from.

Huawei stymied by India security fears

Re:David Gosnell

I'll just use my BB Storm as my carrier it'll cost more but as I don't use my allowance on my dongle anyway I prob won't see any difference at the end of the month.

Uh oh

My broadband dongle is manufactured by Huawei. Can Vodafone guarantee it's free of Chinese bugs? If not it's going in the bin.

ESA chooses British army officer as astronaut

Never one to miss a dig at the RAF....

...is our Mr Page

"Peake's selection will doubtless have caused some bitterness in the Royal Air Force,"

Eurofighter Tranche 3: Oh please, God, no

@ AC mentioning Bowman

I said "we have created SOME excellent and effective systems", I never said all our kit is great, just that it is easy to pick on the ones that aren't as they make a better story for idiots to sound off about. Other countries have similar problems with their procurement. But it isn't just defence, motor manufacturers regularly sell poorly manufactured cars, computer software companies send out software that needs regular patching, builders build houses that have roofs that leak etc etc

In defence we are talking about seriously complicated pieces of equipment and systems - it is inevitable that some suffer problems, and that's without people changing their minds half way through the design process.

More focus should be placed on other areas of government spending which are far more wasteful - health, education and benefits being better areas to pick on. Most (again not all - other peoples experiences may differ) defence contractors I have worked with have had genuine concern for the people on the front line (many of them used to be that soldier/sailor/airman) and would take umbrage at the suggestion that they deliberately try and give the boys duff kit.

Government is wasteful - end of

I'm sick of the military getting flamed for buying expensive kit.

The facts are you can't predict what you are going to need in 10-15years, the procurement cycle of a technologically advanced piece of kit. You design it to meet the current threat with guesses about what you are actually going to need in the future. When the future gets here the goalposts have moved - it has always been thus since the Industrial Revolution.

Development and ironing out of design flaws are the biggest problems - but the kit is needed NOW so they have to be overcome whilst the kit is in use. Operational evaluation is the best evaluation.

Instead of moaning about it pay the extra money and get the new kit that will keep these planes / ships / tanks etc awesome. Those of you who slate our kit, have obviously never seen any of it in the field. We have created some excellent and effective systems independantly and with our allies but all you hear about are the failures as it's a more interesting read.

US Forces 'black' budget = 2nd biggest military on Earth

Frightening

Simply frightening.

How much of these "Black Ops" are being conducted in our own countries in the name of "freedom"

Home Office to keep innocent DNA samples

Innocent until proven guilty went a long time ago

"It is also reversing a fundamental rule of law - innocent until proven guilty."

This principle was got rid of when you became responsible for speeding offences in your car - if you couldn't or wouldn't tell the police who was driving you got convicted, even if the police had no evidence to prove it was you.

This is merely an extension of that.

Conservative US shock-jock to sue Wacky Jacqui

What does conservative mean to you?

I am gobsmacked that this guy can call himself conservative! Here in Blighty being a Conservative is to be a member of a slighty right of centre political party, over the pond it seems the word means something completely different.

I have a couple of US relations through marriage, when I told them I was a Conservative voter they disowned me there and then and refuse to speak to me anymore.

Now I know why, they obviously think I am a Christian Fundamentalist Bigot!

Apple brands UK tabloid 'obscene'

Get over yourselves

I am lucky in that at work I have a large range of newspapers to read, and I tend to look over all of them.

All those of you who dismiss the Sun and its readership are bigoted elitists. The Sun carries more news items than most "quality" papers and highlights wars/major events in remote countries that go unreported in the better written press, even if the reports are just a few words. Also it is good to know which way a major element of our society is thinking. Don't forget the Sun is THE paper the political parties want to get onside as that is where most votes will come from come General Election day.

Phorm boss blogs from a dark, dark place

Who is this mysterious "appropriate authority"?

Now I'm not as technically savvy as most of you on here but I do read widely, this statement:

""We are committed to protecting the privacy of UK consumers and will ensure any new technology of this sort is applied in an appropriate and transparent manner, in full accordance with the law and with proper regulation from the appropriate authority.""

seems to have one major flaw from what I have read, namely no "authority" is interested in investigating, they all wash their hands or claim it isn't in their remit. This is a seriously pathetic way of HMG sticking their collective heads in the sand and hoping it will all go away (I say this as the best possible reason, the others are too frightening to comprehend, I will be re-reading Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm this weekend!)

I'm seriously considering ditching all my electronic communications and going back to good old books, newspapers and face to face chats.

Private ID scans leave fetish club-goers feeling exposed

Burglaries?

As we all know, those who run night clubs are all, every one of them, fine upstanding members of the community with no links to the criminal world. There will never be an issue with these people knowing the address of people in their nightclub with their home empty will there?