Royal Navy Hawks

[cornwallis]

I was recently asked if the RN hawks that attack innocent warships on Thursdays are crewed by regulars or by a private company?Sorry for this spotterish question.

[Pierre Argh]

Civilian company, "borrowed" RAF a/c repainted, civilian pilots (mainly ex-service), not only on a Thursday and other roles too.

[tradewind]

And they don't attack 'innocent' warships

[cobaltfrog]

There are holdover and current serving pilots who fly them too.

[southside]

Whats an innocent warship? Surely its either friendly or hostile...

[Thud_and_Blunder]

"Surely its either friendly or hostile..."

...very black-and-white comment from the grey-funnel line. Can't you have neutral warships? Or is everything G W Bush-style "you're either with us or against us" these days?

[southside]

how can you have a neutral warship....????

If its on our side then its friendly.....if its not friendly then its a bad guy and should be destroyed. Neutral warship??? never heard of such tosh

[BEagle]

So what is your view of the Swedish Navy, you idiot?

[charliegolf]

Bugger, BEagle, too quick!

CG

[teeteringhead]

Or the Swiss for that matter .....:O :O
......oh bugger:O :O

[Toxteth O'Grady]

Friend, Assumed Friend, Unknown, Suspect, Hostile, Pending.

:cool:

TOG

[Jucky]

don't forget joker and faker

[Toxteth O'Grady]

You talking about Southside?

:cool:

TOG

[bad livin']

Seen a few profiles flown by Hawks over the last 6 months that would bring a tear to a glass eye. Reminded me of a time about 3 years ago when I had a Jag PULL UP to get over the 4.5 turret on our well known Batch 3 Type 42...more than one person on the bridge hit the carpet. Magic!

[Navaleye]

They have been known to attack the odd "innocent" passenger ship - but only when asked! Excellent job by the Fradu Hawk on that day BTW. He managed to jump the Queen Mary 2 before 2,600 pairs of eyes spotted him . :ok:

http://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v145/captainavi8tor/Aviation/well_done_201.jpg

[Widger]

They bounce off the sea quite well also!

[Pierre Argh]

"Well done 201"... what finding a gi-normous, brightly coloured, unarmed cruise ship (perhaps they were hoping to pick up some gormet tid-bits?)... or was it managing to arrive "on-top" on time?

Standsback and waits....

[spocla]

Quite a few reservists flying them an'all. An old friend of mine used to refer to the "Thursday War" as re-running the Falklands War every week-difficult to disagree really.

Beagle-Sweet work!

[Navaleye]

Pierre Argh,

To be fair they did arrive bang on time and put in a great flying performance. The event was the tandem crossing by QE2 and QM2 across the Atlantic and was just off the Lizard. I had forgotten what a smoky beast the Nimrod is sometimes, but a great aircraft. I had hoped to see some of the photos taken from the Nimrod - but sadly it was not to be :{

[Training Risky]

Bad Livin', cx yr PMs!

[Roland Pulfrew]

Surely there is no such thing as a friendly or unfriendly warship, they are all just "Targets"!;)

[Widger]

Roland,
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/rn/data/gallery/full/1079604165f.jpg
and HA DE HAR DE HAR
http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/rn/data/gallery/big/1005824801b.jpg

my air farce is avin a larf!

http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/rn/content.php3?page=670&gmode=quick&cat=79

Woosh bang jesters dead!

[Biggus]

Widger

I see on your second link you managed to shoot down Jester with a Harpoon - very impressive.

As to your final link, RN weapons, I didn't realise the RN had Rapier, or do the Royal Marines have some? As for the AA capabilities of Trident..........

Still, once more I digress ...................

[Navaleye]

Bu**ger me Widger, were you planning to splash a Hawk with a Harpoon? They must have got a lot better over the last few years. I agree with your sentiment though :ok:

A little off thread: Is the mixed fighter formation cold war style still practised/trained for?

Looks like Biggus's keyboard is a tad quicker then mine.

[LowObservable]

Legendary WW2 RN identification guide:
Twin engines, single fin: Ju88
Twin engines, twin fins: Do217
Twin engines, triple tins: Enemy aircraft of unknown type.

[Widger]

OK OK, so a little bit of artistic license. But in the finest traditions of Sea Slug, http://www.nms.ac.uk/flight/_images/our-aircraft/seaslug.jpg are you in your jet going to keep on coming when you can see a smoking telegraph pole coming at ya! Are you? Are you?

Oh don't worry Cyril, I can see that weapon is Harpoon, nothing to worry about old chap!

Sorry about the links but the buttons do not appear to work since the site upgrade

[Navaleye]

I'd give Harpoon a better chance of getting of getting an aerial kill than a Sea Slug! :ouch:

[BEagle]

"Bu**ger me, Widger"

Is that in the same naval tradition as "Kiss me, Hardy!"

[Navaleye]

Yes but without the tongues :O :sad: :uhoh:

[Bing]

As for the AA capabilities of Trident.........

Well you could take out the airfield.... and most of the surrounding area

[cornwallis]

Bad'livin do you have a phot of said incident or similiar?

[jEtGuiDeR]

Brace, Brace, Brace :)
http://www.kitegallery.net/albums/cookster/000_0552.sized.jpg

[Navaleye]

Good pic! but fairly dated. Initial observations: Beam on attack at about 150ft. The little white things next to the funnel will have turned the Hawk into splinters before this photo could have been taken. Also at this height the Hawk will have been exposed to Sea Dart for at least the last 20 miles of its flight. Not to mention Shar...doh...

[jEtGuiDeR]

The piccie was taken in April '04, and I'm under no illusion that we would've been taken out like you said. Still, it was bloody good fun :)
turned the Hawk into splinters before this photo could have been taken. If I'd have known they were made of wood, I'd never have got in the thing!! :}

[Roland Pulfrew]

A good bite from Widger, methinks!!

[doubledolphins]

Why waste a missile? Would have got you with the 4.5, much more fun!
(Sorry just regressed to a former life.)

[Navaleye]

Hmnn, the Mk8 never managed to hit any moving target during Op. Corporate, so I'm not sure I would trust it. AFAIK it no longer has an anti-air capability as all escorts now have Sea Wolf.

[Data-Lynx]

A tad churlish about the Slug, Navaleye. At least it looked like a proper
missile (http://homepages.enterprise.net/sjenkins/s_seaslu.jpg) and its expanding rod warhead (http://www.brasscheck.com/OKBOMB/conrod.html) could ruin your day if it got close enough.

[Navaleye]

That's it! I always wondered what brought down TWA 800 and it was a Sea Slug all the time. :E :eek:

[ORAC]

Sea Slug. Looked like great fun if you liked railways and shunting. But it did seem to take up just a tad of room... Am I correct in recalling they used them up by firing them off as targets for Sea Wolf?

[tug3]

The truth will out...

http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/3857.html

Rgds

T3

[Navaleye]

Orac, yes, as I remember Sea Slug Mk1 stocks were expended as Sea Wolf targets, that's one of the few benefits of beam riding technology. With so few stocks of Sea Slug Mk1 around there was little point in keeping the batch 1 Counties around. HMS London with 4 X 4.5"in guns would have come in very handy in the Falklands though.

[doubledolphins]

Blake's 6"s would have been even better! But like the rusty B she had been in reserve a bit too long. As to the 114 mil mk 8, officially it still has a limited AA capability. Lets just say that if you saw the bricks coming at you it might just put you off your aim.

[airsound]

"Bu**ger me, Widger"
Is that in the same naval tradition as "Kiss me, Hardy!"
Actually Beags, the 'Kiss me' quote is wrong. What the Great Man really said was "Nothing too ostentatious thank you Hardy - just a hundred and fifty foot column and a few lions."

[Navaleye]

DD,

The much talkled about Blake vs Belgrano clash! I'm starting to salivate already :)

[doubledolphins]

N Eye, go and order a large gin and get out the video of the Battle of the River Plate!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

One of FRADU's roles is to simulate air launched anti ship missiles, working in conjunction with FRA aircraft. If the RN faces that threat for real (as well it might, given the wide ownership of anti ship missiles - including air launched ones) then it means one thing: the decision to retire the Sea Harrier early and allow a capability gap with no organic air defence was wrong.

As discussed at extreme length here. (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98152)

[AllTrimDoubt]

the decision to retire the Sea Harrier early and allow a capability gap with no organic air defence was wrong.
As discussed at extreme length here. (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=98152)


It's happened. Give it a rest fella. And just about all of your "1000 posts to date" say the same thing.