Old kit in a shiny jet = what exactly?
Sargs:- Though I did work on CASTOR (and the Phantom with its SLAR before it), I only retired from the military last September and have a fair idea and experience of the subject. And … I said the U-2 and J-STARS were quiet, not absent – read the words. If you want to stare for hours on end at the desert looking for dots that might be hooligans be my guest. If you want to know about French strategic reconnaissance assets ask a French analyst, this is not the place for these details.
I respect your point of view, a point of view can be different but still not wrong.
BlackadderIA:- A wide area Battlefield Surveillance System would be a wonderful thing to have but we have Sentinel instead. Maybe one day many years from now we will get what we need and not what we inherit. You know that the radar can, at best find possible (occasionally probable) targets for someone else with a proper sensor to look at and positively identify, (which is all that it did in Libya). And obviously GMTI only works if your ‘target’ is moving. Let us not pretend that Sentinel can do things that it cannot. It is fine for finding ‘what might be a target’ I’ll give you that, but it’s not the only system ‘looking’ at the problem.
I like the SKASaC solution a lot better, shame it too is for the heave-ho soon. I would like to see the French getting their Horizon equipped Pumas out there into what is after all their problem.
Leon said it well, from his UAV dugout, other more modern systems have better resolution and a sensor on board that can actually see the target and not just its radar return.
In the Cold War the CASTOR would have worked closely alongside many other assets to identify the targets, Sentinel is no different in this respect many decades later no matter how much the press and the MOD decide ‘sex it up’.
No one would go out and buy a system with this limited capability today – it should go when the money runs out. The unit is a high profile easy to impress outfit trying to be a success with an outdated piece of kit and a concept that relies too heavily on others. It’s not their fault and I wish them every success, I am not knocking the operators they are good people.
Maybe they should keep the jet but update it with modern multi-spectral (lighter weight) sensors, build on the operational experience gained and…Oh what’s that? No money … Oh dear …
Last edited by HAS59; 27th Jan 2013 at 03:57.