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RAF 2008


Osher

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Looking at the RAF website, it seems that for next few years, our fixed-wing attack aircraft will be:

Harrier GR.9

Tornado GR.4

Tornado GR.4A

Tornado F.3

Eurofighter F.2

Plus of course AWACS, Maritime patrol jobbies, transport, tankers, and trainers.

Interestingly, the Apache is not included in Helicopters. Oversight, or are we getting rid of them?

http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/aircraft.cfm

With the Eurofighter coming on stream, and the Tornado F.3 being already cut back, will we see them all go? The Harrier of course will be replaced by the F.35. In fact, will the 3 variants of the Tornado (LRP, Attack, Fighter) be replaced by the Eurofighter, and, if so, when?

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I believe we're reverting to Bicycles in 2008, with wings... much like in Dark Blue World... and these winged bicycles will be equipped with the latest in harsh language...

Silly, I know but it won't be long now... Oh, but all the Civil Servants working for the MoD will have their pensions secured, and new cars each month, and what money there is left will be disappearing at a rapid pace into new "projects" that go WAY over budget and deadline with no consequence for the contractor, or anything to show for it :angry:

It's late... I fancied a pre-bed rant :wicked:

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Looking at the RAF website, it seems that for next few years, our fixed-wing attack aircraft will be:

Harrier GR.9

Tornado GR.4

Tornado GR.4A

Tornado F.3

Eurofighter F.2

Plus of course AWACS, Maritime patrol jobbies, transport, tankers, and trainers.

Interestingly, the Apache is not included in Helicopters. Oversight, or are we getting rid of them?

http://www.raf.mod.uk/equipment/aircraft.cfm

With the Eurofighter coming on stream, and the Tornado F.3 being already cut back, will we see them all go? The Harrier of course will be replaced by the F.35. In fact, will the 3 variants of the Tornado (LRP, Attack, Fighter) be replaced by the Eurofighter, and, if so, when?

Probably because they dont belong to Crabair :tapedshut:

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<snip> Crabair :tapedshut:

:sick: Sounds like the aroma in the womens football team dressing room after a particularly long match on a hot day :puke:

(It's late, ok? My sense of decency had an early night :blush: )

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:sick: Sounds like the aroma in the womens football team dressing room after a particularly long match on a hot day :puke:

(It's late, ok? My sense of decency had an early night :blush: )

So called because you never fly anywhere direct with them, you always scuttle sideways normally late :wicked:

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Silly, I know but it won't be long now... Oh, but all the Civil Servants working for the MoD will have their pensions secured, and new cars each month, and what money there is left will be disappearing at a rapid pace into new "projects" that go WAY over budget and deadline with no consequence for the contractor, or anything to show for it :angry:

It's late... I fancied a pre-bed rant :wicked:

Sorry Mike but secure civil servant pensions are long gone. And we ... er they....have never had cars provided by HMG (except of course when I was in India. But that's another story........).

Please would everybody please stop having a go at us er.... er...... I mean them civil servants - we ...er... er... I mean they are only real people (honest) doing the will of our er....... I mean their political masters ( ie the people voted into power by you (not me because of the intracies of my occupation it is made very difficult (ie impossible) for me to vote) ).

Civil servants are a misunderstood, unloved.........whoa is me........

(unloved) Graham

ps anyway back to Gambia to day to screw up more peoples' lives........

Edited by GrahamS
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And let's face it...the only new frontline aircraft is the Typhoon that has a dodgy undercarriage, the Harrier is how old? 10 years or so? And the Tornado? 25 years frontline service??

All very old indeed.

And the only "safe" pensions are those of MPs, of course, vast, inflated and above all, guaranteed. :angrysoapbox.sml:

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the Harrier is how old? 10 years or so?

All very old indeed.

The GR5 entered RAF service with No 1 squadron in September 1992.

What do you mean by dodgy undercarriage on the Typhoon?

The front wheel collapsed on a Tiffie last year Daz, after it touched down at Coningsby - no big deal though

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And let's face it...the only new frontline aircraft is the Typhoon that has a dodgy undercarriage, the Harrier is how old? 10 years or so? And the Tornado? 25 years frontline service??

All very old indeed.

But the Harrier Gr9 is only afew years old and the first Tornado Gr4 flight was in 97.

The only 'old' frontline aircraft we have is the F3 and that's only about 20 years old.

Think of some other frontline aircraft and they're not really that modern either. F-16 and F/A-18 both first flew in 1978 and even the Mirage 2000 was introduced into service 23 years ago!

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But the Harrier Gr9 is only afew years old and the first Tornado Gr4 flight was in 97.

The only 'old' frontline aircraft we have is the F3 and that's only about 20 years old.

Think of some other frontline aircraft and they're not really that modern either. F-16 and F/A-18 both first flew in 1978 and even the Mirage 2000 was introduced into service 23 years ago!

Agreed - Age isn't as important as maybe it once was - aircraft can soldier on longer with avionics upgrades etc. The Cold war's over - why develop aircraft at the frequency we used to? What we have is good enough for Iraq & Afghanistan, we could just do with a little more of everything

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Hi all

I believe we're reverting to Bicycles in 2008, with wings... much like in Dark Blue World... and these winged bicycles will be equipped with the latest in harsh language...

As long as the language isn't offensive of course. Or racist. Or sexist. Or ageist. Or homophobic.

Or rude. Or blue. Or calculated to upset someone, or thing. Or indeed harsh.

Regards

Paul

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What we have is good enough for Iraq & Afghanistan, we could just do with a little more of everything

I thought the main critiscism was the lack of any guns on anything, so no ground strafing, which would be useful in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least from the armies point of view. Which is why the Typhoon will eventually have the gun, hopefully with ammunition and hopefully with a bit of training allowed. Currently we have nothing with that capability.

Best

Rich

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I thought the main critiscism was the lack of any guns on anything, so no ground strafing, which would be useful in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That is true Rich, but it is a capability we possess but choose not to use I believe. I stand to be corrected here, but the GR7/9 fleet carry empty under belly Aden cannons - surely they could be re-worked and those cannons made live. The Harrier would make the perfect platform for straffing?

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That is true Rich, but it is a capability we possess but choose not to use I believe. I stand to be corrected here, but the GR7/9 fleet carry empty under belly Aden cannons - surely they could be re-worked and those cannons made live. The Harrier would make the perfect platform for straffing?

The irony is that after years of delays and problems, the guns finally seemed to be on the verge of working when the whole project was scrapped as the RAF saw the Harrier force role as medium level bombing.

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Sorry Mike but secure civil servant pensions are long gone. And we ... er they....have never had cars provided by HMG (except of course when I was in India. But that's another story........).

Please would everybody please stop having a go at us er.... er...... I mean them civil servants - we ...er... er... I mean they are only real people (honest) doing the will of our er....... I mean their political masters ( ie the people voted into power by you (not me because of the intracies of my occupation it is made very difficult (ie impossible) for me to vote) ).

Civil servants are a misunderstood, unloved.........whoa is me........

(unloved) Graham

ps anyway back to Gambia to day to screw up more peoples' lives........

We've already said that we love you Graham, despite your civil service :wub: Anyway, as stated towards the end, it was a rant, and as usual, rants are ill-informed ^_^

As long as the language isn't offensive of course. Or racist. Or sexist. Or ageist. Or homophobic.

Or rude. Or blue. Or calculated to upset someone, or thing. Or indeed harsh.

Regards

Paul

That did cross my mind at the time of writing, but I got distracted by my rant :wicked:

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I think the problem with with civil servants is, like a lot of organisations, today -the appalling higher management. Also certainly in the Tax office the directive seems to be - "mess the customer about - in the hope they will get fed up and go away...and we are right even when we are wrong.. so you have to pay interest as well on the money that we did not ask you for.. ". It must be remembered that the people in the front line are deliberately kept devoid of information and the latitude to reason or make decisions - all of that is done by the cowardly untouchables back behind the lines. Expressing this view to the luckless person at the end of the phone sometimes helps - and it is very useful if the conversation is recorded "for training purposes" and gets replayed later!

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We need Phantoms!.

Should have followed the likes of Greece,Germany and Turkey and upgraded rather than scrap.

Im sure a FGR.2+ with glass cockpit,upgraded radar,Amraam,GPS etc would have served the RAF well.

Sadly it seems as soon as well develop an aircraft to the specs the design always promised the beancounters s**tcan them....The Jaguar being the most recent.

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Reading an article in Aeroplane Monthly, which shows the typical (lack of ) forethought among our lords and masters (note the lack of capital letters.) The idea to get rid of the gun, in the Eurofighter, on grounds of cost, has stalled, since great lumps of lead (sorry, ballast) are needed to retain the aerodynamics, and they've found that the necessary rewriting of the software will cost more than the gun ever would.

I'm surprised that they didn't name Eurofighter "Spitfire." They could have raided Duxford, then, adding their airframes to the inventory, and no-one would have been any the wiser.

Edgar

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