P8

[Garysb]

9 P8's for the RAF then
Going on the current naming system they must be "Subseakers"


Cheers


Gary

[MIKE JG]

Bleh, was hoping they would buy the Kawasaki product.... Just for the cool factor.

[VulcanDriver]

They scrapped the best maritime reconnaissance aircraft in the world, the Nimrod, to save money and left the UK, an island, with no way to patrol its waters. Now they are spending more cash with a US manufacture with no delivery date on top of ordering more F-35Bs that is still having troubles.

And we trust this government with our economy and security. I wouldn't let them run a jumble sale!!

[raclim]

I am just wondering where the two new typhoon squadrons will be based. Coningsby and Lossiemouth are both pretty occupied at the moment even without including the P-8's that will be based at Lossiemouth.

And Having all of the 138 F-35B's based at Marham also seams a bit crazy to me.

Any guesses where they will base all these aircraft?

[Victory103]

Surprised on that one, with the Kawi P-1 getting the news at RIAT. Read an article on both, but only have first hand experience with 2 separate (1 rotary/1 fixed) platforms that were made to do many missions well outside the original design. Really thought something smaller and possibly turboprop powered would fit within the strict budget.

[MIKE JG]

New build P-3's would be perfect for the RAF.

[Firebird]

The interesting thing for me will be the number plates of the sqns.
For years now the RAF has been re-organizing the numbers so as to not leave gaps. The biggest gap at the moment is 19-21. 19 and 20 would fall nicely into the Typhoon sqn range, ex- Phantoms and Harriers, so maybe the P-8s will resurrect no 21 sqn which hasn't been in use since '76 but did have an anti-shipping role in WWII.

The RAF don't tend to name aircraft differently than their official names so I am guessing that Boeing Poseidon MR1 will be the official UK name.

One thing announced yesterday that to counteract the increase in spending was the sell off of 30% of MOD land so my guess is that the number of basing options will be limited. If I had to guess Leeming is the obvious benefactor here as it already has HAS in place.

All guesswork of course as very rarely do the MOD do the obvious thing.

N.B. Pleased to see the Sentinels are being kept especially as the USAF are looking at that class of aircraft to replace the E-8.

[MIKE JG]

They obviously need to raise taxes over there to pay for your military toys.....


That's what they do here.....

[VulcanDriver]

It annoys me that we have to buy new patrol aircraft due to the incompetence of the same politicians that scrapped the Nimrod despite being asked not to by RAF top brass who obviously knew we needed them! Same with the Harrier, at least our new carriers would have had something on their decks instead of waiting for the F-35B to go into full production whenever that will be.