Britian may consider buying 150 French jets for Navy

crazyinsane105 said:

I really don't see why the US is fretting over this stealth tech issue. I mean, there are British subs armed with US made Trident nuclear missiles for God sakes! The US would rather trust the British with American made Trident missiles rather than stealth tech? It just doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.

Click to expand...

I hate to relate this discussion to China but I somehow can see a link there. While UK will never leak any information on its nuclear weapon to anyone, it could be much 'careless' about conventional military technology such as this. US was pretty pxxxed off by the sale of RR Spey engine to China, and they have a reason to worry about their stealth technology. Afterall, selling this kind of technology to China won't do any harm to the UK itself. One of the reasons why the US is pushing to keep the EU arms ban.

Dongfeng said:

I hate to relate this discussion to China but I somehow can see a link there. While UK will never leak any information on its nuclear weapon to anyone, it could be much 'careless' about conventional military technology such as this. US was pretty pxxxed off by the sale of RR Spey engine to China, and they have a reason to worry about their stealth technology. Afterall, selling this kind of technology to China won't do any harm to the UK itself. One of the reasons why the US is pushing to keep the EU arms ban.

Click to expand...

But isn't this JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER that was meant to be used by the one who was in the program with high intention for stealth for major players in this program???

The brits will never use a French fighter

Not in the next 10 generations either

JSF program is not going as planned. VSTOL version is said to be overweight and during vertical landing and takeoff it melted aluminum sheets (used for temporary runways). Means it can also harm carrier decks.

Click to expand...

The only way this aircraft could harm a carrier deck is melt the steel. The flight deck is about 90mm thick. It is armoured steel. I really don't think that will happen.

But I think the program will go on but not in the numbers of aircrfat first invisioned.

Those aluminun sheets you refered to are called Marston matting. A form of it has been in use since WW 2. Nowadays it's called PSP..piereced steel planking.

The British Nightmare



Much better then the Chinese PS's, isn't it?

I know who did that.

ger_mark said:

The British Nightmare

[qimg]http://kovy.free.fr/temp/rafaleRAN.jpg[/qimg]

Much better then the Chinese PS's, isn't it?

Click to expand...

A fake pic (with Royal Navy mark)??? It should go to fake pic thread

ger_mark said:

The brits will never use a French fighter

Not in the next 10 generations either

Click to expand...

I have to agree. The British have been posturing.

While the Rafale may be a fine airplane, it does not exist in a STOVL version. The whole driving force that has kept the F-35 alive is its ability to replace the Harrier. The US Air Force would have let the F-35 die long ago if they thought they could convince Congress to buy more F-22s. The US Navy is happy with the Super Hornet. The only ones who have consistently "gone to bat" for F-35 funding over the past decade have been the US Marine Corps and the UK.

The UK will buy the F-35 as planned, because there is nothing else that combines STOVL and stealth capability. There is no alternative.