woohoo - long nights in the BrassNut and BurnsSuppers staggering through snowstorms tied together by extension cable while leathered and wearing kilts! happy days

1st P8 UK Purchase
 

Seems we have bought a couple, delivery in 2019. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/boeing-receives-22bn-deal-for-17-p-8as-435845/

Norway signs contract for 5 P-8A

All 5 to be delivered by end of 2022. Based at Evenes/ENEV. Current base at Andøya to shut with the phase out of the P-3C/N.

Interesting how more and more countries are suddenly seeing a need for the P8. Obviously shows years and years of under-investment (under-appreciation ?)in MPA. UK not the only ones at fault here then..........

List now includes:

India
Norway
USA
UK
Australia

and potentially Italy, New Zealand and Canada.

Amazed that these 'Maritime Nations' have got themselves into this situation. and the impact will be a long waiting list for the P8..............

Scandalous..........

Arc

Russia adds 'Kazan' to its nuclear attack submarine fleet

Russia?s submarine patrols reach levels last seen during Cold War | The Independent

Next Big Future: China has built a nuclear submarine mass production superfactory

Arc - not to mention all those operating the P3 and needing an update at some point...Maybe even the French will abandon the Atlantique?

For quite a few years, the Russian Navy was mostly tied up at port. Now their subs are back patrolling.

MOD Confirmation that we're getting the first two - on Twitter, today's favoured News channel:

https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/850060656766222337

To be fair, of those, only the UK abandoned it's MPA capability - the others are merely updating their capability.

Germany and South Korea are updating their P-3s to meet the same issues

The RNZAF P3-K2 is a pretty capable platform and will be good for probably another decade, so no 'situation' here in The Land Of The Long White Cloud.

When the P3-K2 needs replacing, I hear that the Kawasaki P-1 is being looked at with considerable interest, it is supposedly much cheaper than the P8.
It may also be more suited to the RNZAF's role which has a great deal more low-level HADR & SAR (i.e. ISR) work than the USN's CONOPS (mostly ASW) for the P8.

New Zealand buying 4 x P-8A

New Zealand ? P-8A Aircraft and Associated Support | The Official Home of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency

Whilst UK buy is in danger.....

Military is fighting ‘£20bn cash crisis’

The core plan for Britain’s armed forces will be revised after the election because of a funding crisis, The Times can reveal. The unravelling of the 2015 defence review is a blow for Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary. Sources questioned whether he could remain in post after an anticipated Conservative election victory in June given the problems that he has presided over at the Ministry of Defence (MoD). They include:.......

A £1.8 billion programme to buy a fleet of Apache helicopters and a £3 billion plan to buy and support nine maritime patrol aircraft from the United States are under threat. Both projects could be slowed down or reduced........

That's what happens when you decided to plan your future buy based upon making financial "savings" over the 10-year plan. What really happens is you cannot get anywhere near the assumed level of savings, because there are always more ops to do and if you aren't on ops you need to train for ops. You could stop the training but then what else is there to do? If you don't train you have no op capability and a lot of very bored people.

You could of course hit the T&S budgets again, but that saves peanuts, or you could bring in great ideas like PAYD and FAM which all make people (our most important asset) even less valued than they already are (great summation of the SFA fiasco in the Gruaniad recently - well worth a read)

Just like most government departments, all the low and medium hanging fruit has already been saved in Defence, which leaves just cuts to capability. Oh and we tried that once, with an entire FJ fleet and the MPA force, and that's worked really well. :ugh:

Well it's a good job we mothballed the Nimrod 2000 then isn't it...

More like shame we wasted lots of money and time on a poor idea.

Yeah those flat-tops and F35b are no longer required due to the PMs stated move away from expeditionary warfare. BIN THEM!

Glad Rag, I think anyone who believes the UK intends to sit at home with a military, only willing to participate in a conflict of national survival, is delusional.

Inferring a future defence policy from a glib statement of pre-election rhetoric is also a bit daft. Does she want to appeal to voters fed up with us engaging in far-flung lands for little gain but much drain? Either way, if the way of leading in the world is to be ready to be a force for good, or keep the wolf from the door, you need an expeditionary capability.

Still, another SDSr (small "r") is in the pipeline by all accounts. Should be interesting.

Sorry MSOCS, I suspect you have been reading too much official MOD blurb! It is obvious that the UK is in for a long period of belt tightening and, UKMil is not able to support the depth of capability (cost) needed for exped Ops that the QE boats are designed for. The P8 capability represents a much greater need than a couple of floating targets and, it would be a travesty of logic to cancel the P8 in favour of those boats! Too late for the RN now. They should have fought harder for a decent capability in medium size warships. :oh:
Standby for some procurement fireworks over the next few years.:uhoh:

OAP

Fair cop OAP, but there's a fair bit of personal opinion in my prediction. The carriers will likely end up driving Defence for the next 50 years. The view that "build them, and the government will be embarrassed into funding the optional extras" isn't going to pass muster when funding such might leave the other Services with more redundancies or loss of vital capabilities for land and air warfare.

A direction change could be in the offing, perhaps.