Heads up for the UK members

a reply to: bastion

Aircraft will be grown in chemical vats to specific
Mission specs soon rather than built if research suggested is correct. May very well explain some "meta materials" out there...

Interesting article about the move to the UK.

The move will be June 5-10, weather dependant. They're aiming for the 5th, but if the weather doesn't look good they'll delay. They will cross with a Voyager.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That was an interesting read
'Harrier baggage' made me chuckle, but I get the concept completely.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

The Harrier pilots were blown away when they transitioned. In the Harrier they aimed at a point on the deck, and a good landing was within 6 feet of that point. In the F-35, they routinely put it within 1 foot.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I bet they love their new toys though
Out of curiosity, I know the US calls it 'military aid' and I always think it is a bit misleading because nobody says the owner of the local gun shop provides 'aid', but do you know if the birds are sold to us for profit or a knock down price?
I'd be selling for profit everytime, and Trump being a businessman, well, you know.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

They're sold through the Foreign Military Sales office. Sometimes that means that they are sold to the other country for the price that we paid, through a government to government sale. Frequently that means that we pay for it as part of our buy and then whoever we're selling it to pays directly to our government. There's some profit in it for the company, but it frequently gives the other government a better price than they might get.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That's interesting, cheers
Fantastic plane though, no way would the UK even bother to try developing our own when that's on the market.
I really want to see one now, like an excited child.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

The FMS process is one of those where you start reading about how it works, and three paragraphs in you throw the papers you're reading around the room and grab your head in frustration.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Interesting article about the move to the UK.

The move will be June 5-10, weather dependant. They're aiming for the 5th, but if the weather doesn't look good they'll delay. They will cross with a Voyager.

Feel like a right dumbass now, didn't know this was what became of JSF, was working on VTOL at BAe in 2001 and looked a bloody interesting peice of kit then. Made Eurofighter design that was occuring at the time look obsolete.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Haha I bet!
I was curious and it seems the UK sells 4.7 Billion £'s of arms to the US each year from what I've read, mostly small arms and components but all good for exports.
link

Queen Elizabeth crew meets the F-35.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: Zaphod58

That's interesting, cheers

Fantastic plane though, no way would the UK even bother to try developing our own when that's on the market.
I really want to see one now, like an excited child.

We helped make this, there's a seperate secret UK stealth fighter that's in tunel testing/soon flying too. Here's a vid of the UK one arriving for testing at BAe Salesbury (just up the road, suprisingly didn't go into Hangar 5, the most secure building on-site -biometric in/out back when I worked there, completely seperate site, which.y hiints at fa more secret stuff occupying there.

youtu.be...

a reply to: bastion

That was an interesting watch
Cheers for posting. I bet at the higher security levels, Britain and the US are heavily involved in all sorts of shady defence developments.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

I posted the other day about the exchange program with the RAF. It's pretty surprising. They've had guys in the B-2 for years and last year or the year before sent one of their exchange pilots to Top Gun with the F-18 unit he's with.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wow, I guessed there is much close working together, the Five Eyes says it all to be fair, and if I'm honest I'd rather we work with the US etc than any EU nation.
Especially since the EU is playing hard ball about things like the new sat-nav satelite system we helped in development and funding - they want to punish us but Britain is playing hard ball back now because they need our ground stations on the Falkland/Ascension islands.
Who knows, maybe the US will give us their military access to GPS and we won't need our own satelites, but the EU is going to struggle winning this high stake game.
I started a thread about it for anyone interested...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Speaking of US/UK cooperation.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Interesting read
I notice again (as in many articles these days) no mention of the EU as an involved entity, just NATO.
I'm seeing NATO, the US, Australia, and Canada mentioned as partners much more than I ever have in my life, I was born after Britain joined the European common market so have only known a European passport etc.
But talk these days is very much about partnerships with entities outside the EU now, and I'm liking it to be honest...we've only fought the once with you guys, but say the French, who knows how many times lol


EDIT
I know France are in NATO, but you know France, gotta keep an eye on them still...

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

The EU finally figured out that they might need new, and more tankers than they currently have. So they banded together and ordered the A330MRTT to split between about 6 countries. The A400M has so many issues that France and Germany are both buying C-130Js.

a reply to: Zaphod58

PMSL! Kinda how I imagine the situation to be, I'd rather deal with the US.
For sure.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
PMSL! Kinda how I imagine the situation to be, I'd rather deal with the US.

I agree to a point, so long as the US do not take the proverbial. A few years back there was blood spilt around UK access to the source code of F35. However, the Typhoon worked out well, probably because the French were not involved.

With the EU closing ranks and relegating the UK to "outcast" status, I think the UK will need to form closer collaborations with others who are not so ideologically driven and selfish. The current fracas over UK being pushed out of the Galileo space programme is a good example why the UK need to look elsewhere in the future.