Cost of British Air Strikes in Iraq
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The nation has bombed ****** out of non-bacon eaters for 23 years on and off.
Are we any better off for it?
I'd guess £billions of tax payers money has been wasted, I'd sooner see it spent on schools and hospitals (in this country, not India).
Are we any better off for it?
I'd guess £billions of tax payers money has been wasted, I'd sooner see it spent on schools and hospitals (in this country, not India).
Doesn't matter if the PW has an explosive filling or not, the most expensive part of it by far is the Guidance Package at the front. you may save a few thousand on the cost of the actual bomb due to no Fuze or explosive filling if you use a guided drill / practice round, but that's about all.
This cost of precision armaments isn't a new question. Twenty years ago, I listened to Admiral Boorda (then our CNO) go on at length about how pointless it seemed to him to shoot Harpoon Missiles (or even Penguins) at small boats. His point on costs of weapons and targets was made pretty well, for all that he ignored how many iron bombs miss their targets ...
Within a few years, a few weapons with lower payloads (Hell Fire, some of the 25 mm chain guns) were in the Fleet and providing the local commander with a few more choices in matching munitions to targets.
Does anybody know off the top of their head what percentage of Brimstone or PW IV is made in the UK? If memory serves a UK company had the licence to build PW II back in the late 1980s. Are the 500lb dumb bombs built in the UK?
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
To be frank, the cost of the few munitions we are dropping fade into insignificance against the overall cost of operations. Further, if you offset the reduction in training flights and bombs it's even less.
£105,000 missile vs £15,000 pickup?
£105,000 missile vs £15,000 pickup?
If MBDA have any sense, they will buy every pickup they can lay their hands on, and leave them, with the keys in, where Johnny ISIS can find them.
BRIMSTONE: B*gg*rs Raghead's Isuzus, Mazdas, SsangYongs, Toyotas, Opels, Nissans, Expensively.
If MBDA have any sense, they will buy every pickup they can lay their hands on, and leave them, with the keys in, where Johnny ISIS can find them.
BRIMSTONE: B*gg*rs Raghead's Isuzus, Mazdas, SsangYongs, Toyotas, Opels, Nissans, Expensively.
Simply deploy a drunken squaddie in Bradford with a GPMG and a few 200 round linked belts.
Very cheap and there's plenty of ISIS ToO.
Oh bother, now I'll have to re-register with a spare email address........
Very cheap and there's plenty of ISIS ToO.
Oh bother, now I'll have to re-register with a spare email address........
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The treaty was signed by the UK, but not the U.S. which said that the development and introduction of "smart" cluster munitions, where each submunition contains its own targeting and guidance system as well as an auto-self-destruct mechanism, means that the problematic munitions are being removed from its inventory.
Here is a look at a "smart" CBU at work:
Seriously though - this is an area where our Overseas Aid Budget should be used to pay for it. Instead of giving millions in cash to corrupt Iraqi officialdom, we should give freely delivered Brimstones!
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Ahh ... I had been wondering about this consideration too ....
Islamic State Fight Could Breathe New Life Into the A-10 | Military.com
Islamic State Fight Could Breathe New Life Into the A-10 | Military.com
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Er - the whole point of the RAF is the delivery of these weapons.
Isn't it actually more expensive having an air force during the times that it isn't delivering weapons to bearded men in pick ups.
Its not just about boys toys and beer calls.
Isn't it actually more expensive having an air force during the times that it isn't delivering weapons to bearded men in pick ups.
Its not just about boys toys and beer calls.
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MJF #26: Industrial pedigree of such kit is complex, sub-assemblies widely scattered. Paveway IV is "managed" by Raytheon UK/Harlow (nee Cossor); Brimstone by MBDA/Stevenage (nee DH Props).
"Cost" of kit is an irrelevance: if we (that is, our elected representatives) give a Task, it must be done bestest, quickest. Nigglers here are in fact disputing that the Task is "in my name": so their redress is to put up an alternative...which I presume would not be the "do nothing" option.
"Cost" of kit is an irrelevance: if we (that is, our elected representatives) give a Task, it must be done bestest, quickest. Nigglers here are in fact disputing that the Task is "in my name": so their redress is to put up an alternative...which I presume would not be the "do nothing" option.
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All these recent ops in Lithuania, Syria/Iraq must be giving the Army and Navy leadership a bit of a headache trying to project their Service. If you ain't contributing, you ain't relevent. Politicians must like us at the moment.....