abc123
Banned
You know, there is a reason why nobody in the world uses their AEWACS aircrafts for MPA duties...
WI: No Eurofighter Typhoon?
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You know, there is a reason why nobody in the world uses their AEWACS aircrafts for MPA duties...
abc123
Banned
Actually, no. It isn't.
It's like using your say Mercedes S-class ar for ploughing the field instead of tractor. They both are motor vehicles, have four wheels etc but they are not made for the same thing.
gloster meteor mk3
Banned
true but if you have no mra4 then what let any tom dick and harry come into our waters?
abc123
Banned
Well nothing stopped them until now really, I mean, you will not drop a torpedo on unknown ( presumably Russian ) submarine even if in British territorial waters during peacetime...
gloster meteor mk3
Banned
my point exactly the decision to scrap them was a big freaking mistake keep the mra 2 and upgrade it when needed instead of letting another country safeguarding your territorial waters that does not give a fuck in defending you when the say the would. America i name you OATH BREAKERS.
abc123
Banned
And way, oh way should American taxpayers spend their hard-earned money to defend the country whos'e taxpayers/Goverment doesen't give a sh** about their military capabilities?
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gloster meteor mk3
Banned
which we contracted them to do by the way and how much money has Britain spent on buying American tech 6-12 TRILLION and counting
If your government is short sighted enough to weaken your maritime security, maybe instead of blaming another sovereign nation you should gather other like minded people and petition your government to reprioritize funding to national security. Regardless of any treaties or alliances a nation has, it must look to it's own security first.
abc123
Banned
You contracted who to do what?
And you can allways buy tech from some other country or your own.
They were upgrading the MRA 2 into the MRA 4, however somebody forgot to think about the fact that the Nimrods were built so long ago that it was virtually one off aircrafts with each one having different characteristics (I can't speak for the Nimrod but in the book on the Vulcan it was pointed out that each one of them flew and handled differently due to differences in construction).
As I understand it by the time the BAE team realised this then the costs for the project got out of control (not to mention most likely modifications to deal with issues like Nimrods blowing up).
Frankly given the age of the design and both the needs and uses for it, I think the UK made a blunder with the MRA 4 programme from start to finish, not that that's unusual with some of the UK's choices.
UK MOD and BAE have plenty to answer for that has nothing to do with the US, though I suppose for people like you it's a handy excuse.
There are other options, the US P-8 if the UK wanted it and would pay for it, the proposed MPA variant of the A400 which I think was touted at some point during it's development and would have allowed the RAF to share costs across a larger fleet, the CASA CN295 MPA which is operational right now.
All of these however would require vastly better planning and leadership from the MOD and the UK politicians. The reality is that's it's pretty hard to convince the public to pay for such high end equipment as the UK public isn't concerned about allied or hostile subs in UK Waters.
Two world wars. Each time featuring submarine warfare that nearly strangled the economy and starved the nation. And this wasn't enough to convince them that subs are a threat to the shipping their lives depend on? The ghosts from the Battle of the Atlantic are spinning in their watery graves right now, I'd say.
Italy and Spain. And it was never meant to be a CAS aircraft. It was a strike and Recce aircraft. Its role was to drop nukes on WarPact Armoured Units or fire Anti Ship Missiles at Soviet Warships. NATO Nations using it had dedicated CAS aircraft, mostly the Fiat G91.
They shoudn't. There is currently no hostile submarine threat. The Russian fleet is reduced to bastion defence, if they can still handle that, and there are no hostile submarine fleets left that can operate close to Britain.
Regarding nimrod, IMO UK should from the start be part of P-8 Poseidon program, like the F-35...
I don't think the P-8 programme had started when Britain chose MRA4, IIRC the alternative was upgraded Orions. Airbus was promoting an A319 MPA about a decade ago and certainly from a perspective of UK jobs that might have been a better option than Poseidon but it seems to have been dropped for lack of interest. Certainly there's no shortage of options for MPA, there's hints on various defence forums that after 2015 we may adapt the RAF's Sentinels or Hercules' to carry out the more mundane duties such as fishery protection and SAR while in the future getting a P-8 squadron for high end work. That would be a very logical solution and that's precisely why I don't think it will happen.