The first picture might be one of the greatest formation pics ever. Sea Vixen, A-4. B-66, Crusader and Scimitar. Have you seen the one on Wikipedia...got an F-4 as well...

Air Power Australia (and Carlo Kopp) are a laughing stock in Australian military circles....as soon as someone mentions anything by them they know they’re talking to someone who really doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Why would the F414 be an upgrade to the EJ-200? it offers no advantages and has a lower thrust to weight ratio plus is 6 inches wider. The EJ-200 also has an upgrade path that massively exceeds the F-414 with a 30% increase in thrust.

I‘m sorry, but you’ve got it the wrong way around. The Tornado was one of the new generation of jets that took advantage of the computer age. The F-15 was a slide rule bird. The Tornado has fly by wire, the F-15 doesn’t. FBW is the key divider between the ages. The length of time between first flight and acceptance is…

30% of coalition reconaissance missions over Iraq and Syria are RAF. The UK is second only to the US in airstrikes launched over Iraq. The difference is that we have the agreement of the Iraqi government. And understandably after recent wars that the UK has been involved in (namely Iraq, and partly Afghanistan) the…

And it’s 2 guns...2 x 27mm Mauser Bk-27.

The pylons on the wing swivel as the wings fold.

They only entered service in 1982....F-15’s entered service in 1976!!

It might shock you but the UK is the second biggest humanitarian donor to the Syrians. Second only to the US, and not by a massive margin. In fact the UK almost gives as much as the rest of the EU combined....

Agreed. Such a pity with the Viking, a slightly lengthened, modernised version would be perfect for some many tasks on carriers. ASW, COD, AAR and as a multi mission sensor platform controlling UCAV’s. I know there is a lot riging on UAV’s for some of those tasks, but....it wouldn’t have done mush harm as a backup at…

The first Stinger kill was by an SAS trooper in the Falklands. He hadn’t been trained on it as the only guy who had had been killed in a helicopter crash a few days before, just a quick read of the instruction manual and then shot a Pucara down.

Never forget that the guys who didn’t make te fighter pilot grade have had the most stick time and combat experience in recent years. Hard to think of a more combat oriented pilot these days than a CH-47 or AH-64. In comparison the fighter pilots look tame...and well.... safe

The RAF guys thought the GR’s were fast as well. But they also had the Tornado and Buccaneer which would outrun a Harrier. The Buccaneer in particular didn’t look that fast, but down low nothing could keep up apart from a Tornado. Phantoms used to give up...

It#s not the type of taking that he needs though. There won’t be a litfting of sanctions or any degree of trust. It doesn’t gain him anything.

Allahu Akbar is a bit of a catch all phrase. It doesn’t mean that the person saying it is a Jihadi. In the West there isn’t a direct equivalent but ‘Oh my god’ or’Jesus H Christ’ don’t mean you’re a Christian if you shout them out....

Most Western air forces are pretty much all PGM these days. Don’t forget that most of these nations have advanced manufacturing capabilities and have participated in wars with the US over decades. Gulf War 1 was the real turning point, Kosovo drove the point home on targetting and adverse weather capabilities. The RAF…

Longer than that the TRAM turrets were starting to be installed in the early 80’s...

SVP-24 was a very, very cheap upgrade to the Su-24. It’s just a bombing computer. It’s not some sort of super targeting system. Its the sort of thing that Western jests have had for decades. Look at the bombing capabilities of a Tornado from the early 1980’s or a Harrier with the Hughes ARB system (which from the…

If we’d put the kit in an A321 they could have cleared up. Particularly as the mision system in the MRA4 is now in the P-8. With an Airbus product you’d essentially guarantee most of Europe on board for the future. BAe were morons. Putting the kit in Nimrod guaranteed no exports at all. The entire project was a…

They seem to have the military procurement budget under control for once, see the latest NAO report for details.