Thread: Other contries equipment cock-ups.

[quote="BuggerAll"]

Originally Posted by littlejim

Originally Posted by winnfield

Another tiny problem was that the contract was signed in 1997 and the helicopters were built in the 1960's.

A lot of good helicopters were built/designed in the 60's: Chinook, Cobra, to name but 2.

Sea King

Wiki : The prototype flew on 11 March 1959. It became operational with the United States Navy in June 1961 as the HSS-2.

M60 machine -gun. A failed development of the MG42 which the septics were then lumbered with until very recently when they finally adopted the GPMG. Y'know, the one we got in 1960 or so. (In the case of my old Bn. in 1958 when they trialled them in Ballykinlar!) It had a short sight base, was prone to stoppages, had the bipod attached to the end of he barrel which made a qucik-change under fire a bit interesting I bet, and came with an asbestos glove FFS! Pure Tat I reckon.

And have you heard what a procurement and R&D f*ck-up the Bradley IFV project was? It cost BILLIONS, they made a film about it with Kelsey Grammar and Tim Whatsisface our of the Shawshank Redemption.......Robbins!
Back to the Frogs, the AAT52 MG, absolute shyte by all accounts and they're still stuck with the f*ckiing thing and of course, the grand-daddy of them all, the carrier Charles De Gaulle which is several metres too short for the aircraft it carries to land on it!!Priceless.

As for us , can anybody tell me why, exactly, we bought hundreds of SAXON APC's when there were stacks of perfectly serviceable Saracens lined up at Ludgershall for most of the late-1970's?

Originally Posted by Jaeger

M60 machine -gun. A failed development of the MG42 which the septics were then lumbered with until very recently when they finally adopted the GPMG.

Does anyone know why we use them on Chinooks
We used to have GPMG on Wessex IIRC

Originally Posted by brighton hippy

the German f104 farce aka the widowmaker
lots of dead boxhead pilots before it got sorted out

Especially the early models with downward firing ejection seats to save money and weight
Plenty of pilots killed trying to roll it at 100 feet to eject upwards

Originally Posted by the_boy_syrup

Originally Posted by Jaeger

M60 machine -gun. A failed development of the MG42 which the septics were then lumbered with until very recently when they finally adopted the GPMG.

Does anyone know why we use them on Chinooks
We used to have GPMG on Wessex IIRC

Came as part of the package when the Chinooks were bought I think

Indian 9mm ammunition - absolute sh1te!

So they sold it to us

Originally Posted by rickshaw-major

Indian 9mm ammunition - absolute sh1te!

So they sold it to us

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

Originally Posted by jagman

Originally Posted by rickshaw-major

Indian 9mm ammunition - absolute sh1te!

So they sold it to us

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

Originally Posted by BuggerAll

Originally Posted by jagman

Originally Posted by rickshaw-major

Indian 9mm ammunition - absolute sh1te!

So they sold it to us

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.

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.

Originally Posted by jagman

Originally Posted by BuggerAll

Originally Posted by jagman

Originally Posted by rickshaw-major

Indian 9mm ammunition - absolute sh1te!

So they sold it to us

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.

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

Originally Posted by BIPOLAR77

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)

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.