HMS Ocean to be scrapped

[west didsblue]

Nothing the MOD do makes sense. The biggest crime is trying to develop our own arms and equipment when it always ends up costing far more and is usually inferior to stuff that is already on the market. The only reason I can think of is to hand big fat contracts to someone who will be rewarding you with a seat on the board when you retire.
In the 80s when it was time to replace the venerable SLR, instead of going for something which would be cheaper and better, they went for a design that was shit, cost a fortune and dated from WW2. It was so bad they had to bring in Heckler and Koch to fix it.
So our forces are usually woefully equipped and countries who spend far less on defence than us have far better weapons and equipment.

That's not actually true. The problem is, if we develop our own stuff, when their are cuts to be made it's within the government's power to cancel the programme and that's happened quite a few times. This is why we've ended up in multi-nation programmes like Typhoon and F-35 where the government of the day can't pull out without major penalties. So we end up not doing our own stuff and go for big collaborative projects that end up costing a fortune because each country has its own requirements and wants its own workshare which is nearly always not the best way to manage it.

 

[stony]

That's not actually true. The problem is, if we develop our own stuff, when their are cuts to be made it's within the government's power to cancel the programme and that's happened quite a few times. This is why we've ended up in multi-nation programmes like Typhoon and F-35 where the government of the day can't pull out without major penalties. So we end up not doing our own stuff and go for big collaborative projects that end up costing a fortune because each country has its own requirements and wants its own workshare which is nearly always not the best way to manage it.

You can't blame collaborative projects on the fuck up that was the SA80. It was only the second new rifle for the army since the Lee Enfield and a chance to give our soldiers a light, reliable and modern assault rifle. Instead the lazy twats stiffed us with a design that had been gathering dust since the 40s.

How did the French manage to pull out of the Eurofighter deal?

 

[west didsblue]

You can't blame collaborative projects on the fuck up that was the SA80. It was only the second new rifle for the army since the Lee Enfield and a chance to give our soldiers a light, reliable and modern assault rifle. Instead the lazy twats stiffed us with a design that had been gathering dust since the 40s.

How did the French manage to pull out of the Eurofighter deal?

Sorry, I was talking about aircraft. I don't know much about rifles. The French were in discussions at the start of Eurofighter but decided not to join the consortium and went their own way with the Rafale, so they didn't actually pull out. It has always been just the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain with workshare based on the number of aircraft each nation committed to.

 

[bluethrunthru]

There is going to be a 3 year period from HMS Ocean being Decomissioned to the QE being operational capable. Only one of the Albion and Bulwark is in service at any one time. This will leave us with 1 capital ship. 4 years a go we had 6

Yeah but think of all the money it will save so Gideon can offer tax brib....sorry cuts in time for the next election.

Defence of the realm - the first basic tenet of government - unless its this government

 

[bluethrunthru]

It's part of the plan for an EU armed forces.

well they had better be quick in forming it or we will have fuck all left to contribute - a few aircraft - one or two unfinished aircraft carriers and a handful of troops by 2019 - they may not even let us join !!!