Was the backseater in the Arrow, doing Air to Air photography of a Jag?

I can imagine the brief now, we'd like a picture of a Jaguar in the vertical :p

SASless

Interesting claim about the potential readiness of the Blue Angels et al. I remember seeing a recent documentary on them which suggested that the airframes were the ones that the fleet no longer needed/wanted.

Red Arrows Hawk frontline capability?
 

I left in 1995 but flew 2000 hrs on the T1 and even then bolting a gun and missiles on it would not have been considered adequate for service over say Iraq.

Today I understand the MOD has quite stringent rules for prepping an aircraft for service in a hostile environment so unless the aircraft flown by The Reds had this kit in place it seems unlikely they could fulfil any tactical role.

Equally, pilots cannot just flip out of a Hawk into a Typhoon or GR4 without being current on the tactics and weapons etc.

The last Royal Yacht Brittania, in theory it had a war role in reality it was never deployed to The Falklands or even for used in disaster relief. I feel The Reds are in a similar position, they do what they do very well but have no meaningful secondary capability.

Partly because she was fueled by bunker fuel, not marine diesel, so she would have need her own RFA tanker. She also had other technical issues, such as the submarine engines used to generate on-board 240v. By the time she was paid off they were causing major problems.

Add to that HMY Britannia was not very large, and not a great sea-keeper, so it made far more sense to take up more recent vessels from the trade.

It wasn't the RAFAT aircraft that were (necessarily) sidewinder capable, it was the pilots - who used to complete annual tactical training for it at TWU. The idea of point defence and mixed fighter force went out some time ago. It was the same idea as us instructors at the time having war appointments back on our front-line types - when everything had a war role, including UAS Bulldogs.

Some of the team aircraft are technically sidewinder capable although with the cockpit mods for the display role it would not just be a case of bolting the rockets on.

Last time I asked about the Sidewinder role, it had drifted into obscurity along with the MFF concept. Presumably the aircraft are still capable of carrying Sidewinders but it's clearly a long-gone idea. Not much point augmenting Typhoons with Hawks. These days, if the UK got into a struggle that was so desperate as to need MFF resurrecting, we might as well wave a white flag and forget about it.

As for the Blue Angels, I can verify that their airframes are usually the oldest or the most-used in the fleet. The twin-seater I bumbled around in a couple of times was an old wreck, disguised by highly polished paintwork!

Nobody is going to touch the Red Arrows - it's too much of a political headache that nobody wants to handle. No MP wants to be billed as the person who killed-off the Red Arrows. The Hawks will soon be at the end of their fatigue lives and it seems more likely that they will simply be retired when they have to be, and that the RAFAT will disband as a direct result. It's the easy option that avoids any ugly murder scenes.

Whether any team re-appears to replace them is open to question. If industry money was put into the idea then maybe it could happen, but it would require a batch of very old Hawks to be refurbished and maintained at great cost. It seems unlikely that even industry could support such a venture. Of course the RAF has some shiny new Hawks now, but there are very few of them (too few in fact) and there's no way that resources could be diverted to display flying.

Sadly, one has to conclude that the heady days of nine-ship formation flying isn't going to last forever.

New tail scheme revealed.

RAF Red Arrows - Home

My word!

That's a whole 5 minutes and a new packet of felt-tips gone into the design of that then.

:D

Don't like it at all.

Perhaps I'm looking at it in the wrong way but to me it looks like four aircraft going their own different ways, even if it's a formation split.

Given the events over the last few months maybe a team aspect would have been better?

Feeble. Total lack of moistness from this callsign.

Not another design competition for Blue Peter watchers is it!...............Ill get my coat

I really like it. It gives the right message for their 50th anniversary, dynamic, patriotic, colourful and recognizing their own distinguished history. I especially like the way they have worked in the Gnats and Hawks. Despite Spurtle's churlish comment, a lot of thought went into it.
Well done the Reds and good luck for the coming display season.

Look a bit more closely at the aircraft shapes and it might make a bit more sense.
Red Arrows Fly the Flag with New Tailfin for 50th Display Season

It seems to be popular with most people outside of here so a winner as far as RAFAT is concerned.

Looks fine. What happens if Scotland vote YES though? :}

Easy. Just spray over the blue bits with more white. Or change the blue to green for the Welsh.

Surely that'll affect the nationality markings of every British military aircraft, not just the Red Arrows?

This said though, many English sports teams incorporate blue in their team strips for some reason....

I suppose they could always paint over the blue bits ...


... if necessary! Hawaii (née Sandwich Islands) seem to be happy with their present flag.

http://nationaldayofprayer.org/wp-co...ag-300x200.png

RY Britannia
 

Thread drift (sorry)
January '86 Britannia lifted 450 out of Aden along with an RFA.

Ground forces were also deployed, having left Lyn. in a hurry they were sorting out their kit on Bravo disp. at AKR when they realised one of there landrovers was krank, cue visit to mt to requisition a replacement, luckily not on my inventory for AFAIK its still out there.

PM

Image shown to wife (also ex RAF) who just curled her lip.

MPN11
I'm sure that the team members who are brave enough to view this thread will be delighted to know the level of support they are getting from their former comrades. If you can't say anything constructive, why do you feel it necessary to post at all?