Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

Hopefully with much better reliability. My Scenic was in the garage for 5 months, until the mechanic realised that yes the fuel pump was the problem, and the 3 replacements he had put in were all faulty too.

Sure they would…

Even leaving out all the necessary other bits to make use of them, second hand fighter jets…

LM want the service contract, a nice easy money rip off. FFS a basic private jet is causing issues due to reliability, but somehow jets that have been used far harder are somehow “cheap”? From memory other nations that have picked up Boneyard 16s have spent a lot more than the sticker price getting them into service even with existing capabilities.

I thought that buying a squadron of fast jets was firmly off the agenda for many years? We need them yesterday IMO.

Bring on some decent aircraft I say! Now!

I always thought a well-specced drone squadron would be better and cheaper. I am talking about the serious drones, not those we currently have. It's the way of the future in my opinion. 2nd hand jets, well, they would spend more time in maintenance than in the air.

Name me a drone that currently has the capabilities to get on station with either an unresponsive Bear or Air liner off the West Coast and name the price tag for them.

I’ve read the comms report is there another document? it was a radio show that I heard this from now….not a document, maybe confusion on your part. I was merely suggesting it could be LOA3 given the “substantial” increase in funding and recruit drive of the AC

The TF30 were a very reliable bomber engine. The development path from the original use on the F6D thru the F111 and F14 uses morphed from an engine designed for sustained specific performance thru to a fighter engine that would be "flown" much more aggressively with throttle control response a vital part of the F14's usage versus the high speed cruise foreseen for the F111.

They weren't a great fighter engine and were very prone to compressor stalls. The F14B and the F14D were upgrades that swapped the TF30 for the F110 and by all knowledgeable accounts had a transformative effect in the airframe performance.

The original F14 required fairly precise and careful engine handling to exploit it's full performance. The F110 upgrade made it a far easier plane to fly and far more lethal.

The TLDR is, the F14A was massively hampered as a fighter by its engines. The upgrade to F110 engines undertaken transformed the aircraft's effectiveness but fell to budgetary concerns in the post Cold War environment.

Everyone watching Top Gun this week then, yeah?

1/72 or 1/48?

All this fawning over the F-14 - It suffered from some well flagged issues.

Flying through your wingman's jet wash would invariably cause a double engine flame-out with the subsequent flat spin almost always non-recoverable.

There were timing issues with the ejection sequence with RIO's known to catch up with the canopy if they had to punch out in a hurry.

Definitely had the upper hand on the Mig-28 though...

Oh I understand regarding speculation but his wording is suggesting it is passed committee stage and the monetary amount has been debated by the committee already.

Well spotted, I overlooked the recommendation section on 10.9 “That consideration be given to a step up to LOA 2, as described in this report, in the short term pending the more detailed policy debate and decision required for higher levels of ambition”

it appears we are going that route.

Given how low our spending is and the couple of dozen million a year increase we’ve seen for years, anything in the hundreds of millions is “substantial”, doesn’t mean we are jumping to 3 billion however. There is no way a certain party in Government (who shall remain nameless, but has a certain colour to it) would back such increases, hell getting 500 million off them even over the next 2-3 years is going to be a pain in the arse.

It definitely has not gone to Committee yet. It is to go to Cabinet this month, after which it may or may not go to the House, presumably in the form of supplementary estimates, in order to bring the defence vote from €1bn to 1.5bn this year and the coming years. It may get a debate in the house, after which it will go to Committee stage for further discussion.

The real question will be what can we start NOW, given the utterly shambolic implementation of the DF White Paper to date (a document which should be assigned to the bin, lest any more time be wasted on it).

My money is on Brugha being sacrificed for housing to give bicycle man a win in Rathmines. Yet again, selling the family silver for short term financial needs.