RIP Harrier Jumpjet

[Guest]

some brief info and photos! DFC!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11996936

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/cambridgeshire/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9290000/9290056.stm

Edited December 22, 2010 by Ford

[Guest]

not quite oldish news, but hey..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/15/harrier-jump-jets-britain-us

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/15/harriers_saved/ 'So the decision to scrap the Harrier looks like a very foolish one indeed from a British viewpoint. Still, it's an ill wind which blows nobody any good, and plainly the US Marines can't believe their luck'

 

and now, we want the 'jumpjet' back, although in its newer form

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/16/government-aircraft-carrier-jets-uturn_n_1427759.html

[Fred Bassett]

Final fly past over the houses of Parliament:

 

Although I do suspect that Photoshop comes into play here.

[duckwaddler]

I like that Fred

[Guest]

nice one fred.

just spent 1bn refurbing them, and then decided to scrap and sell for 'peanuts' (at least they were sold to our allies ). as the US realised, despite their 'age', there's not much against it better out there atm (the f35's are 'allied', and overdue, and need revision at considerable expense).

Edited May 1, 2012 by Ford

[Guest]

now confirmed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18008171

[Guest]

further info

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153741/Languishing-Arizona-mighty-fleet-Harriers--sold-price-just-ONE-US-replacements.html

[Guest]

now confirmed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18008171

 

and the F35B is now formally the one, with the accommodating new HMS QE Carrier setting sail. and the sister PofW due later (despite the earlier mothball plans for it)

 

but it (the QE) uses win xp! lets hope they have paid for continued MS support

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/30/new-aircraft-carrier-hms-queen-elizabeth-royal-navy

[stu007]

@Ford

 

Exactly why the heck would the new flagship be using win xp what were they thinking!!!

 

Just look at the penny pincing that our most modern aircraft carrier and flagship by the Government has done as our new carrier still has to rely on the protection of other ships for it's self defense as what does the new carrier have.

[Guest]

as you say 'When either of our carriers puts to sea, almost the entire surface warship strength of the Navy will need to be deployed to protect them...'

from a seemingly quite reasonable journo report in the DM.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4645434/Pride-Britain-HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-6bn-blunder.html

[Guest]

and, a few (not as many as first thought, and oft criticised) f35b's are due next year to join the QE programme (which apparently wasn't mothballed because it wld've cost more to do so than carry on and actually build it! (links above)).

http://www.airforce-technology.com/news/newsuk-mod-invests-135m-to-build-new-f-35b-aircraft-hangar-at-raf-marham-5850017

[Guest]

the harrier was great. loved it.

the f35b's looked ok initially, but they have been rife with criticism. took so long to production that they are now considered dated. and, the uk has dropped its numbers re.

 

as has been said, unless the carriers are escorted by pretty much the entire navy, they wld not be of much use in any areas of real conflict with capabilities agianst. except perhaps as a distant runway, but then isn't that what the UN and NATO and allies for eg provides.

as mentioned in the article maybe it could be used as a ferry, maybe just off libya to italy etc

but, carriers do seem to still have their place. for eg the US and CHina (china also launching their own new one) sending theirs to the obvious regions asia pacific.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-40527918

 

what do you think

what now should the MoD mainly be investing in re defence, and operations abroad, in the current climate.

[honeybee13]

I'm not sure I know the answer to your question at the end, Ford, but the Harrier was a great looking plane. I was at Farnborough one year when they had a row of about six of them hovering, doing bows etc. I felt privileged to have seen that.

[tobyjugg2]

@Ford

 

Exactly why the heck would the new flagship be using win xp what were they thinking!!!

Would you rather they used Vista? LOL

 

Actually, xp in its stripped form is a very capable, small and resilient platform which has 'simpler maintenance and flexibility than Linux. (hard to shorten this to a line and still do justice to both sides)

 

I have been running two servers with very similar purposes for many many years, one on a nix version, one on XP stripped, both running on very old hardware.

 

Its the XP stripped one that gets the extra tasks as its commonly so much easier to do. It might end up on the nix once proven.

Yes, you need to reboot the XP box once a month, and yes it takes a bit more hardware (but not vastly more) than the nix setup - but it generally does extra things more much easily.

 

Darn good and useful once all the crap is stripped out.

 

I've hardly even glanced at any MS version beyond windows 7 other than a few quick suck it and sees'

 

 

Its much much harder to strip win 7 (warning techy alert)

http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-7-service-pack-1-service-configurations/

 

XP is as defunct (NOT) as the Harriers.