**British Armed Forces Discussion Thread**

[steve45]

The Ranger Regiment and Marines are also getting a new rifle to replace the SA80. Would assume the main Army will follow at some point.

Had a play about with that rifle and the others within the trials. Very nice feeling bit of kit.
I'm not saying it absolutely wont happen but I dont see the rest of the Regular forces seeing this any time in the near future if ever. Hell... I was helping run some ranges a few months back and some loggies were still rocking the A2 with irons and the old green thermoplastic handguard
Currently were potentially looking at a massive defence projects overspend and the need to do some emergency scaling back on spending... I cant see this being high on the priority list with the roll out of the A3 still in progress.

 

[Stu999]

Had a play about with that rifle and the others within the trials. Very nice feeling bit of kit.
I'm not saying it absolutely wont happen but I dont see the rest of the Regular forces seeing this any time in the near future if ever. Hell... I was helping run some ranges a few months back and some loggies were still rocking the A2 with irons and the old green thermoplastic handguard
Currently were potentially looking at a massive defence projects overspend and the need to do some emergency scaling back on spending... I cant see this being high on the priority list with the roll out of the A3 still in progress.

That’s interesting. Will be good to hear if you get to know any more in the future. There was still talk about a project for the Army replacement rifle around 2025 but as you say budget trumps everything.

I hear the A3 is pretty decent and not really any worse than an AR style rifle apart from maybe the awkward drills / manual of arms.

 

[200sols]

I think they did a pretty good job to get the ship ready to sail in the timeframe they did.

They were in the process of putting the marquees up on the ship just before they got notice they were going to leave port, its not a quick process to get all that down and get the ship ready, pretty quick turnaround in the end.

 

[Stu999]

Our nuclear deterrent not being much of a deterrent:

Trident missile test fails for second time in a row

The UK's nuclear deterrent failed to fire a test missile reportedly landing close to the launch site.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[200sols]

Our nuclear deterrent not being much of a deterrent:

Trident missile test fails for second time in a row

The UK's nuclear deterrent failed to fire a test missile reportedly landing close to the launch site.

www.bbc.co.uk

Time for a refund from the US.

 

[jpaul]

Just had some kind of supposed expert on r4today suggesting the 'telemetry' data sent *to* the missile was wrong - so human error ???
some techno-babble that the missile trajectory was not as expected so it self-destructed/aborted.

If the trajectory was wrong sounds more like the propulsion system or it's control wasn't working correctly;
wonder what the maintenance schedule is like, how many man hours/year and scheduled replacement of systems - do they they get shipped back to manufacturer on regular maintenance rotation.

defence secretary was on sub then , or nearby boat.?

e: https://www.naval-technology.com/projects/trident-ii-d5-fleet-ballistic-missile/?cf-view 58t each

 

[chrismscotland]

A defence source close to the Mr Shapps insisted the Trident "could absolutely fire in a real world situation" if it needed to.

Sounds like ********; obviously the state of the Trident boats is closely guarded but from the odd thing that has leaked out in the last few years its cleat the Vanguard boats are well past their sell by date.

The missiles themselves are part of a shared pool of Trident II missiles with the USA and they do get rotated fairly regularly; I guess this is always going to be an issue with kit that isn't fired very often

 

[Tom_ed1987]

Our nuclear deterrent not being much of a deterrent:

Trident missile test fails for second time in a row

The UK's nuclear deterrent failed to fire a test missile reportedly landing close to the launch site.

www.bbc.co.uk

Shock as launching a space rocket from under the sea sometimes goes wrong...

The political capital being made off the back of this basically non story (scrap trident to fund NHS nurses etc etc) is such BS.

 

[player]

You could be forgiven for thinking weapons of such destruction where maybe a little more reliable.

 

[alexakasloth]

It's a good thing then that there are 3 more.

 

[Stu999]

Shock as launching a space rocket from under the sea sometimes goes wrong...

The political capital being made off the back of this basically non story (scrap trident to fund NHS nurses etc etc) is such BS.

So you wouldn’t expect it to have at least a 99.9% success rate given its intended purpose?

 

[adidan]

Shock as launching a space rocket from under the sea sometimes goes wrong...

The political capital being made off the back of this basically non story (scrap trident to fund NHS nurses etc etc) is such BS.

It's not a good look, especially right now, and we shouldn't be so quick to minimise failure especially where national defence is concerned.

 

[steve45]

It's not a good look, especially right now, and we shouldn't be so quick to minimise failure especially where national defence is concerned.

Defence spending is not a popular election winning point though. Not that the current crop have much chance of staying in come election time. Politicians are far too short sighted. It will bite us in the **** eventually.

 

[willhub]

It's crazy to think that over the space of 100 years the UK has gone from the most powerful country in the world (and probably wealthiest) to a country basically hiding behind the crowd and shouting.

 

[jpaul]

it is the same trident the USA are using, so black marks for both countries.

https://www.lasg.org/Modernization/Postol_Trident_2Feb1998.pdf

If the above statement is true, it indicates that Trident II CEP is roughly 50 meters. This means awarhead could be delivered within a radius of 50 meters of a target with a probability of 0.5, and to 100meters of a target with probability 0.94
interesting they use stars, too for navigation
After launch, the missile undergoes powered flightusing three propulsion stages. At the end of poweredflight, the "equipment section" is placed on a ballistictrajectory towards a set of targets.The equipment section of the Trident I can carry 8100 kt Mark 4 warheads. The Trident II equipmentsection can carry either 12 100 kt Mark 4s or 8 500 ktMark 5s.The equipment section, often called the "BUS," hasits own guidance and propulsion system. The BUSorients itself so that the inertial guidance system cansite on a guide-star. The expected position of theguide-star in the field of view of the guidancesystem's siting device is compared to the observedposition. This information is then used to correct theguidance system errors at this point in the missilesflight trajectory.

 

[adidan]

Defence spending is not a popular election winning point though. Not that the current crop have much chance of staying in come election time. Politicians are far too short sighted. It will bite us in the **** eventually.

I've said elsewhere, whatever Department Shapps gets moved to ends up having all sorts of issues.

He manages to spread the worst luck around and anything that could go wrong, no matter how remote, seems to follow.

 

[alexakasloth]

So you wouldn’t expect it to have at least a 99.9% success rate given its intended purpose?

I'd fully expect 30 year old kit to have issues at some point. I guess that's why there is a rotation with 1 in maintenance (which this one sounds like it is) and 2 in port on standby.
They've identified an issue and it can now be rectified, quite a standard non-story really.

 

[Minusorange]

I know price is a factor given £17million per launch, but if the first failed, surely it's prudent to launch a second just to see if it's an issue with all the missiles ? And it's not like Lockheed won't compensate for the failed launch so it's still technically only £17million spent on a successful launch ?

 

[Stu999]

Defence spending is not a popular election winning point though. Not that the current crop have much chance of staying in come election time. Politicians are far too short sighted. It will bite us in the **** eventually.

It does seem like there's a bit more appetite for it from the public and it's cropped up in the news a lot lately. Hopefully the Ukraine situation and Middle East potential wars will have focussed some minds.

 

[Freakbro]

Blimey, nothing screams "I feel entitled" more than Officers and Senior soldiers throwing their toys out of the pram because they feel they still need bigger houses based on their rank and not need.

Military personnel 'to quit' over housing rules

The Ministry of Defence wants to change housing rules to focus on needs rather than rank.

www.bbc.co.uk

Military officers and senior soldiers have said they will quit the Army in droves over new accommodation rules.

Currently, military personnel are entitled to subsidised housing based on their rank, but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants to change the rules to focus on families' needs.
The plan could mean many officers will lose entitlement to larger housing.

Under the new offer, a married major with no children would be entitled to a two-bedroom property instead of a three- or four-bedroom house - leaving them with around 38% less space.
A married private with three children will get a larger house - gaining around 27% more space.