Now where the heck did I put that MPA?
 

Never mind going home early for Crimble - there's a very sad story in Aviation Week today.If you feel you can take it, you'll find the full story, by Tony Osborne, at
Canadians, French, U.S. Hunt For Submarine Off Scotland | Defense content from Aviation Week

I despair
airsound

The Borrowers
 

So not content with having to borrow kit from better-equipped nations on operational detachments, the UK itself is now having to borrow core capability from other nations....

Appalling.

Although Nimrod MRA4 was an utter pig* (apart from its very capable mission system), when it was turned into saucepans the UK should have decided on a more modern and capable alternative, such as the P-8 or even an A320-family based MPA.

But no. Our sandaholic MoD seemed to forget about anything that wasn't connected with OP FAILURE-ON-THE-NW-FRONTIER.....:mad:

*Described by one pilot, who I will not identify, as "The worst aeroplane I've ever flown".

The French for gods sake! Things must be bad.

Foreign submarine........West Coast of Scotland.

What could there possibly be of interest out that way??


They'll be sticking a MAD boom on the Sentinel next to try and get out of this hole!!

:ugh:

They could have given me a shout, I would have popped up and had a quick look about.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...kemble_arp.jpg



ps... if anybody else is avail, we could go dual.

Did our friends find anything?

Hostile aircraft would be intercepted with a show if force.

Hopefully the MPA deployed were able to provide a credible deterrent even if we can not.

"the UK itself is now having to borrow core capability from other nations"

our masters have decided MPA is NOT a core capability

why else do we have allies?

It's the Homer Simpson Defence Planning Assumption - "why can't someone else do it?"

How many other island nations are there in NATO?

Just the one other last time I looked, which can't really afford defence as it was taken down by greedy bankers, unlike the UK .... oh wait :\

Oh no they haven't.

It was the Nimrod MRA4 that was scrapped - not the requirement for an MPA capability. Our masters are just expecting (or hoping) that our allies will provide the core capability for us.

Playing devils advocate here. What are we providing to our allies to fill their gaps/core capability ?
C17s to the French should start the ball rolling.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/r...r-mali-mission

Maybe I'm asking a stupid (or perhaps emotionally loaded) question, but could this Mali mission have been done with A400s?

Lateral Thinking ?
 

Or what about these "Drones" we're all talking about ? Or what about an airship ? (have they knocked down the sheds at Cardington ?)

Last time we had these sort of cuts the Argentinians pinched the Falklands!

Strictly speaking, in capability terms, there is no such thing as an MPA capability. What is required is a platform that can conduct 'Sea Surveillance', 'ASW' and 'ASuW' with the ability to carry out SAR as and when needed. An MPA platform may be able to fulfil most, if not all, of those functions. Bit of pedantry I know but that is how our capability planners would describe it.

Danny

can do some maritime surveillance but not ASW - See the USB's Triton programme.

hangars are all Grade 1 listed buildings, so they shouldn't be going anywhere soon.

and a bit wrong. Be careful what you wish for. Maritime Surveillance Aircraft generally don't do ASW, a key role for an MPA

So where were the RN Merlins?

Oh Danny, forgot to mention: Airships - have you seen the current North Atlantic weather forecast?? 😉

Three Merlins went with Argus down to Sierra Leone.

Heathrow Harry.

Naive as ever. Our "allies" will only stomach this for so long....