UK Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Lethe said:

GCAP seems to have a lot more momentum behind it than FCAS, I doubt that it's going to fizzle out. Japan's involvement is novel to be sure, but the UK and Italy have a long history of collaboration, not only with previous European combat aircraft projects such as Typhoon and Tornado, but also helicopters (AgustaWestland), the common heritage of Type 45/Horizon and EMPAR/SAMPSON, etc. Given the multinational nature of the project and its significance for each of the national partners, I think a dedicated thread could be justified rather than having piecemeal updates scattered across various threads.

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jospence said:

I would also be very surprised if GCAP fizzles out, seems like some budgetary snags at the moment which are pretty common for projects this expensive. With the erratic nature of the U.S. and apparent weakening of Europe-US military alliances, I would be shocked if it ended up falling through, it's an extremely important project for Italian, Japanese, and British aerospace companies.

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Lethe said:

The 2022 documentary film Lancaster is an unexpectedly compelling production, pairing often remarkable historical footage with detailed and varied interviews with former pilots and ground crew. Nor does the film shy away from the basic horror of the strategic bombing enterprise they were engaged in. One standout is the test footage of the "bouncing bombs" that were subsequently employed against German dams. The casualty statistics are remarkable also: 45% of ~125,000 Lancaster airmen were KIA.

It's narrated by Tywin Lannister, which seems altogether fitting.

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Three Russian submarines conducted a "covert" operation over cables and pipelines in waters north of the UK, Defence Secretary John Healey said.

A British warship and aircraft were deployed to deter the "malign" activity by Moscow and there was "no evidence" of any damage to UK infrastructure in the Atlantic, he added.

Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, Healey said: "We see you. We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences."

The Russian embassy in London has denied Healey's claims, according to Moscow's state news agency Tass.

[....]

Healey told a Downing Street press conference on Thursday that Russia had sent an Akula class submarine as a diversionary tactic while two of its GUGI spy submarines carried out the surveillance of these cables.

Healey said the attack submarine soon left UK waters and went back to Russia after it was monitored, while the two GUGI vessels remained.

The Royal Navy deployed frigate HMS St Albans, fuel tanker RFA Tidespring and anti-submarine Merlin helicopters to track all three of the Russian submarines.

Other nations were involved in tracking the Russian activity - though Healey mentioned only Norway by name.

"Our armed forces left [Russia] in no doubt that they were being monitored, that their movements were not covert, as President Putin planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been exposed," Healey said.

"We watched them, we were able to track them, we dropped sonar buoys to demonstrate to them that we were monitoring every hour of their operation."

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Sovereignty of Falklands rests with the UK, Britain tells the US​

BoronCarbide said:

This has probably been discussed in another thread by now but:

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Sovereignty of Falklands rests with the UK, Britain tells the US​

If the US goes ahead with turning a blind-eye to any future conflict over the islands (for real this time), would Argentina be able to capture them? The RN is not in great shape nowadays whilst Argentina is ordering new kit.

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On the other hand, the rise of drones could offer a cost-effective deterrent for Britain by purchasing European Shaheds or something.

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TheFuture_NoMore said:

the RN submarine fleet is in very good condition and would sink any Argentinian fleet the moment it attempts to appear near the Islands.

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