The #UK in post #Brexit is notorious for armed forces cut that make little sense. There were rumors that they might cut the fleet size of #Astutesubmarine and give 2-3 to #Australia in #AUKUS. The current plan hinges a lot on #UK being not #UK .
The US is letting go of its 3 #Virginiaclass production slots to sell the boats to #Australia in 2030s. This will be followed by #SSNAUKUS to be built from mid 2030s to 2040s. This program is highly dependent on UK not being UK and funding the new SSN development.
My concern stems from the fact that the UK is funding massive programs 1. #Type26 frigates 2. #Type31 frigates 3. #Dreadnoughtclass SSBNs 4. #Challenger3 tanks
Given these challenges, will they be able to fund a new SSN for themselves (per White House release) and help Australia
Even if this works, #Australia has two #SSNs with little to no overlap in reactor design, maybe even weapons and small fleet sizes of 2-3 submarines each, very high potential for cost overruns. IMO, it made more sense to sell Astutes or Virginias made in Australia.
Where does the #IndianNavy fit in? Biggest opportunity is grab the to buy the Short Fin Barracudas Aussies abandoned and cozy up with the French. Why not #AUKUSIN you ask? India has its own nuclear submarine program which is mature. Is it as advanced as #Virginiaclass, I doubt.
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Coz, in a peer conflict, none of these will be used as strategic bombers as that role is behind them. These will be used as #Cruisemissile carriers that will never do old school bombing until all enemy AD is down. Pic credits: #Indianairforce
Look at #Russians for eg. In #Syria, they used #Tu22M as old school bombers as the AD threat was very low. In #Ukraine, these are launching missiles from well inside #Russian and #Belarussian territories.
Lets list in my opinion the worst decisions taken or nearly taken by largest navies around the world. #εpsilon
The #USNavy#Zumwaltclass destroyers were supposed to have #AGS capable of firing ultra long range 155mm shells, have no shells as they were canceled. Now, to re-add the X-factor the #USN is replacing AGS guns with VLS for upto 12 hypersonic missiles. Costing a lot of $$$$$$$$$s
Once the greatest #Navy on Earth, decided it was too great and powerful to have a ship mounted AShM. The #Brits decided #RoyalNavy could retire its #Harpoons without procuring a replacement anytime soon. Luckily , it didnt happen. This is why I feel #UK will cause #AUKUS to fail?
Lets do a short #T90 vs #T72 visual diff thread. #T90 is an evolution of the #T72 & was originally supposed to be called T-72U or T-72BU. Also, remember that early #T90S exported were actually #T72 turrets on #T90 hull. The pic is a T-90A Mod 1992 (feel free to correct) #εpsilon
But first, how do you know it is a #T90 or #T72 in the first place? Look at the wheels, it should have 6 road wheels with these spoke & cavity type design. If there are 6 cavities (pic 1), it is a newer #T72, if there are 8 (pic 2) older #T72. If there are 8, then confirmed #T72.
#T90M's wheel cavities (also called indentations on all #T72 and #T90) extend till the rim edge instead of just short on older #T90A, #T90S and all #T72
Pic 1: #T90M without skirts, identations till wheel rim edge
Pic 2: #T72B3, identations just short of wheel rim edge.
No. 1, The event eg. something happens btw 2 countries, trust in this order and identify overlaps. The overlap is usually true.
1: Unedited videos of same event, multiple angles
2: Unedited pics of same event, multiple angles
3: Directly or indirectly corroborated by both
eg....
Eg 1. Moskva sinking
3a: #Ukraine claim, Moskva sunk by AShMs
3b: #Russsia claim, Moskva sunk by fire & storm
2: Pics of Moskva with sooty hull, big black marks/holes on the hull near water line away from openings.
1: Video of Moskva showing all in pt 2.
Conc: Moskva sunk by AShM
While the #IndianArmy has #Arjun in production, why isnt there a large scale commitment to replace ageing #T72M in service. These tanks are terrible for their crews and not well protected.
While the plan is to add #T90 turrets on #Indianarmy#T72 and there are prototypes going around test areas. But #T90 is now a known quantity, the #US has a few to test on and develop anti-tank munition tech. #India needs to get away from the turret popping design to gain a.......
Qualitative edge as all #Chinese tanks and all #Pakistani tanks which are not Type 59 derivatives rely on the same carousel auto-loader design. The #Chinese ZTZ-99 and #Pakistani Al Khalids are essentially #T72 derivatives, how do I know? I looked at the road wheel identations.
This is a opposite #whatwerethedesignersthinking thread. The #Russians built a 5,000 tonne frigate that has more missiles than several larger contemporaries. It has 16 AShMs VLS (2 3S14 8 cell UKSK modules) and 32 Redut SAM VLS for 9M96E 40 km and 9M96E2 120 km missiles. #εpsilon
My very scientific metric 115 tonne per missile (I know it is not scientific, just a fun metric). For eg. #Indian#Kolkataclass is 154 tonne per missile, #British#Daringclass is 168 tonne per missile. But, those are destroyers and have larger stores for longer deployments
It is funny that these frigates have the same peer armament as #IndianNavy MF-STAR destroyers with equally potent AD & AShMs at 2/3rds the displacement which limits endurance for this #Russian ship. The Gorkys are based on elongated Krivak/#Talwarclass/Admiral Grigorovich hulls..