Australian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

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Jeff Head

General
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Thank you, Jeff. I haven't followed The Military Balance for twenty or more years, but I imaging that many of the numbers will have received little attention, as those Russian para, while other numbers will have been to difficult to get right. Then there is the influence of propaganda. I remember that the Pentagon doubled its estimate of Soviet military expenditure in the time of President Carter and that was followed by The Military Balance.
We should ask and see if there are any Russian members of the forum and ask them. In order to havce 20 million paras (which I also find hard to believe) they must virtually have every able bodied male be a part of it.

My focus on that chart is really the active duty and official reserves. I may go back and just take the paras out of it.
 

Fortesque

Just Hatched
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According to the book "Skymen" by Robert Kershaw, the Russians were the first to develop large scale air drops and operations in the 1930's. The spin off from this was a large proportion of the population also used to jump from towers that were erected around the country. Apparently men women and children used to participate and it soon became a favored past time. Maybe this has something to do with the inflated figure of 20 million.

I would post a pic of the book but I don't have 10 posts yet :(
 

perfume

New Member
Re: Australia Military News Thread

I have a question regarding the ramp on the Canberra class:

I've been reading around and it seems that the RAN are not even considering purchasing/operating STOVL aircraft such as the F35B to operate off the Canberras. It seems they only plan on using them strictly as a LHDs and to operate rotary aircraft from them exclusively. The only situation in which fixed winged aircraft will operate from them is in situations where they operate in cross-deck with allies such as the USN.

Please correct me if I'm wrong on this, but apparently even though the Canberras can technically 'host' F35Bs on its deck (I'm not sure whether the deck is treated to allow vertical landing at the moment), their hangers do not have the capacity (in terms of facilities and room) to allow full operation of F35Bs.

So my question is why the ramp? It seems that it provides no benefits for the operation of helicopters, at the costs of (just off the top of my head) reduced usable operating space for heli operations and increased construction costs. Are there any hidden benefits to using a ramp for heli operations? Will there be simple and cheap modifications available in the future that will allow it to operate F35s? Also, due to its limited size, will it be able to operate F35s in meaningful numbers?

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help answer this :)
 
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Equation

Lieutenant General
Re: Australia Military News Thread

canberra-01.jpg


I'm surprised they allowed a civilian sail boat to get that close to the Canberra during this stage of construction.:confused:
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Re: Australia Military News Thread

I have a question regarding the ramp on the Canberra class... my question is why the ramp? :)
Several reasons:

1) Cross decking US JSF aircraft.
2) Cross decking other allies Harrier aircraft.
3) Helicopters can make use of the ramp as well with rolling take-offs.
4) UAVs and other small prop driven aircraft can use it.
5) Should the RAN decide in the future to got to STOVL aircraft, they already have the capability.
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Re: Australia Military News Thread

RAN OOB

Kuttabul/Sydney33°51′45″S 151°13′36″E 3 FFG Anzac 4 FFG Perry Repl sh Success 6 MS 2 Ass Amph

Stirling/Perth32°14′30″S 115°41′00″E 5 FFG Anzac 6 Sub Collins Repl sh Sirius

Aviation :
Nowra close Sydney
Esc 816 15 S-70 Asw/SSM
Esc 808 2 NH-90 TTH
Esc 723 3 Bell 429 6 Ecureuil

S-70 replace by 24 MH-60R for 2016.
 
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