Sentinel Deployed to Mali
 

BBC News - Mali: RAF surveillance aircraft Sentinel deployed

Sun Who.

Creep? .

Just because I post a thread on Sentinel, is no reason to suggest I'm a creep.:E

Sun

Could be looked at as mission creep but, like the C-17s, it seems more of a case of allowing the French to make use of a capability they do not currently possess.

Not that we will possess it ourselves after 2015 under the current plans.:sad:

They seem to keep finding uses for it. What odds on a life extension now, I wonder...?

Shame we couldn't lend the French some of our old trident missiles would save having to decomission them.

MtM, was my understanding sentinel has a reprieve post 15?

Some of the ISTAR community seem to be convinced of this but there is absolutely nothing on paper, in my understanding anyway. Until something appears in Hansard I would put it down to wishful thinking. A lot of money will be required to keep it going, I would suggest.

If sentinel is to be maintained post 2015 (and I'm neither arguing for or against that), then presumably something else has to go/give to release the funding to pay for it - or are there still some people out there who still think that more money will be available by 2015? :=



In the meantime, and I'm not asking for any details, what is the footprint to support the sentinel deployment, admin, supply, engineering, force protection, etc, etc......?

Think the extension idea comes from government offering them up to Nato in February last year.

@Biggus - the comments about a visiting aircraft at Waddington over on Fighter Control may give a few clues. c17 25/01/13 • FighterControl • Military Aviation Forum

In theory there is an unallocated pot of several £bn to pay for priorities yet to be decided. So in theory again it would be a matter of Sentinel making it onto what I understand MoD calls its "whiteboard" of items it wants to pay for in that way. Of course things may not pan out like that, but the unallocated contingency is part of what appears to be an understanding established between MoD and Treasury as part of MoD putting in place better financial management. Whether the pot survives at all will be a good litmus test of whether a department can deal with the Treasury in good faith. I'm not betting the farm on that, but we'll find out soon enough.

Perhaps they can book the time against Le Aircraft Carrier useage ??

Future ISTAR
 

The activity looking at the UK's future ISTAR (more properly ISR) constellation is the Air ISTAR Optimisation Study (passing reference here): House of Commons - Future Maritime Surveillance: Government Response to the Committee's Fifth Report of Session 2012-13 - Defence Committee

It's sponsored by D (JACT) and is a two stage process ultimately reporting April 2014.

Sun

Definitions: Optimisation Study/Capability Review

Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, but no jam today......

howiehowie93 hints at the right of it. This is surely yet another damning indictment of the SDSR decision to dispense with the RN's carrier capability. Safe flying to the Sentinal guys though

We are talking about the Mali that is famously landlocked aren't we?

Sending a carrier verses a few dozen people to run a Sentinel and a couple of C-17s?

Why does ever thread drift into the topic of a floating runway?

Really? Any idea how far northern Mali is from the sea? Dakar to Timbuktu is over 950 miles.

From the coast of Guinea to the east of Mali is about 1200nm.

To put that into perspective if the carrier was left in its UK port the northern tip of Mali would be about 1600nm from the deck.

The RN spiel about how much of the planet is covered in the watery stuff is pretty weak. The last time I checked 100% of the plant is still covered by air.

For those who think that a little carrier with a handful of puffer jets and a few clattering things would be of much use in this particular conflict, this is a map of the area:


'Miles' shown on the ruler are statute miles, not nautical miles.

Illustrations of the above:
France didn't send its (only) carrier. OK, it's under (light) maintenance, but this is not rushed to make the ship available either (as it was for Libya).
France did send a BPC (Dixmude) (a very able helicopter platform), but... without helicopter onboard, just as a heavy capacity carrier (armored vehicules, numerous trucks and so on).
I too suppose there is a reason to do so. ;)