We seem to be god at buying shite.
There is no excuse for not producing our own ammunition here in the UK

What? - and not buy from the cheapest bidder - I'm reporting you to Gordon.

eurocopter tiger

cannot fly due to radar issues (clouds, possibly brought from a Uk firm)

Also the ammo is out of date and cannot be used on it (From the 80's)

m60 came with Chinook and would cost to much time and money to type certify a gpmg to fire from chinook most seem to have been replaced with miniguns

Crack on BuggerAll, I would be quite happy to meet Mr Brown personally to explain my comment, I may take a machete to the meeting. Do you think he would mind?
There really isn't any excuse for us not producing our own ammunition though is there?
If you actually want bullets to make a bang noise when you pull that trigger thingy that is. Not that Gordon would give a flying fukk about that small detail.

The problem with having an arms industry is that you must let it export arms - thay way you cover some of the costs and keep the little buggers competetive..

The problem in the UK is that the press and the liberal masses hate the idea of us selling death and destruction, so have done everything they can to stop it. What then happens then is that the Arms industry becomes a self licking lollipop, and the government becomes the only customer, and they can just produce cr@p (because the "customer" will always buy it)..

This then becomes a reason to flog off what remains of your industry as "expensive and inefficient".

Finally you then load your "commercialised" arms industry with so much HSE regulation to kill off whatever is left..

Simples

Of course, the MoD doesn't help, with their predilection for buying UK-specific solutions that no-one else uses.

Russia - source - Briefing Paper

The Defence Ministry announced today that another test of the Navy's much-vaunted Bulava submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile had failed. The Bulava, which was designed to carry up to ten nuclear warheads, was last successfully tested in September 2008, but failed a subsequent trial launch in December. The Defence Ministry indicated it would establish a commission to investigate the missile's shortcomings; the failures are reportedly due to technical problems in the device designed to separate the various stages of the missile during launch.

The missile was initially tested in 2005, and was designed specifically to operate with the new Borei-class (Yuri Dolgoruky) submarines, the first of which is reportedly undergoing sea trials. Both platforms have suffered from persistent delays and design challenges, despite the Defence Ministry's stated commitment to prioritise nuclear over conventional weapons development. The Russian authorities regard the nuclear triad as a cornerstone of national security, but ageing weapons systems and lacklustre research and development will continue to shrink both the size and efficacy of Russia's nuclear forces.

Smart procurement my arrse!

And some people think this seems like a good time to get rid of Son of Trident

According to a documentary on German TV last week, the German version is shiite. It is equipped with a super all singing dancing etc missile, which is of no use in Afghanistan. The French meanwhile have re-equipped theirs and are using it in Afghanistan in support of their troops. Meanwhile the Bundeswehr has no AH support and their Defence Minister said that the troops will get all the support and equipment they need.
I think somebody has been taking lessons from Blair.

One of the c0ck ups that impressed me the most was the Chauchat machine gun from WWI. To put it mildly it was useless, so the French sold it to Uncle Sam in 30-06, which was even worse. The 30-06 is far too powerful for the weapon, which was prone to jamming anyway, thanks to the extreme battering that the weapon got it also had a habit of failing catastrophically.

Nice one Froggy.

Would that be the coal powered boat? The one that took ages to dive and sometimes even longer to surface, if at all.

No, it would be this beast...



Crew 42 (including 6 officers)
Length 78m
Beam 8m
Draught 7m
Displacement 3,050t (surfaced) 3,350t (dived)
SpeedSurfaced 10kt

Yes they were A1s. Even more odd is the report I heard from an ex-para who served in Sierra Leone of encountering rebels armed with L98A1 Cadet GPs! A surprising number of these and L85/6 variants are unnaccounted for since the closure of the two plants that made them.

From downunder.

1. Upgrading M113 APCs, straightforward job you say, FV432 no probs. Oh dear, the M113 saga
www.australiandefence....13-upgrade

2. Seasprite ASW, 11 a/c for $1B, old Kaman airframe lots of smart electronics, never worked, project cancelled www.janes.com/news/def..._1_n.shtml

3. Wedgetail AEW, well it'll get there (more or less, mostly less) in the end
www.theaustralian.news...77,00.html

4. Ah yes, AAAvn have Tiger AH on order, not clear how delayed it is, or whether reported probs from France and Germany apply.

However, encouragingly, about 3 years ago NAO in UK produced a report on MoD procurement which included lots about how wonderfully DoD Aust were doing and how much MoD could learn. Makes you wonder if NAO can tell ther arrses from their elbows

Here is the helicopter "which cannot fly".

Three are currently being deployed to Afghanistan in support of FRA troops.

The 30 mm ammo from its Nexter cannon are doing just fine and are much more accurate than the M230 Chain gun used on the Apache.

The new 68 mm rockets are still being developped and the FRA Tigers will carry Hellfire from 2011 onward, including the "blast enhanced" version.

Another old one, the Luftwaffes 4 engined Condor maritime recce/bomber. A truly super piece of kit, would have been even better had it worked. Had at best about a 30% serviceability rate and the engines tended to overheat and even catch fire. Unfortunately for Herman it was the only aircraft of its type on their inventory, so he was stuck with it.

As I previously posted, the German version is having major self induced problems, whereas the French seem to have got at least partly right. As for the accuracy of the cannon, I don't believe that accuracy is a major feature of a spray and pray type weapon.

It isn't. What is needed is a guaranteed beaten zone.

Have you seen the newsreel footage of Adolf standing facing out from the port side for photographers, and in the background you can see the ground crew hurriedly trying to put out the flames coming out of the port undercarriage brake drum? Adolf looks on, unconcerned!

Yet another of Hermans bright ideas, the MP44/StGw44. In principal a super weapon, the troops thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, especially on the eastern front. This was the Father of the assault rifle.
So far so bad, having produced a super rifle, which is what the troops wanted(OK the barrel got a bit hot on full auto, actually far too damn hot), some one forgot a minor detail---------------------------------------------------ammunition. Although millions of rounds were produced, it just wasn't enough for the weapons that were issued to the troops. There was therefore a permanent shortage of 7.92 short, consequently the order was issued to fire in semi auto only. Not exactly what you need when you are up to your arrse in very angry Russians.