We definitely should have some ability to defend ourselves but I guess we’re a small neutral nation with a small population. If we’re invaded by a superpower of any sort we’re fucked regardless of how many of these we have.
We probably need at least one or two (for redundancy) interceptors to have information but I’d rather put resources into increasing our maritime patrol fleet and Navy.
Our Casa 235 had racked up so many air hours that Airbus have put it in a museum. We have a lot of coastline to patrol given we’re an island nation.
They should buy more Casa 295 (the new ones are great) and invest more in navy recruitment and ships with helicopter.
But then there’s the health system and the housing crisis. No nice choices here.
I’m still convinced the solution isn’t even something like a LCA jets, but investing that same money in a drone fleet. We don’t need fast response fighters so much as multi-role reconnaissance with extended time on station and some payload capacity for light interdiction. Something like the newer versions of the Grey Eagle can spend up to 24 hours on station, and can be packed out with a custom sensor suite to suit the role. They’re a fraction of the price to purchase and operate, and they have far more use in assisting other branches like coastguard/S&R, maritime patrols, and even the potential for overseas support of peacekeeping deployments for the first time ever.
There would be a setup cost to installing the control facilities, but it would still work out cheaper both initially and long term, as well as offering far more flexibility than LCA fighters could.
I wouldn’t know the first place to go to learn about these different military machines, but I’ve also seen Gripens mentioned. I guess cheap but effective is the way to go, whatever that would be.
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I don’t know what much of this means. But €300m and €20m per annum thereafter seems expensive for a fleet of 8 aircraft.
Enterprise are really diversifying. What happens when you click the ‘book now’ button? Do you have to pay upfront?
https://preview.redd.it/3lwpvuvlzb5d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6a97a7a2b123cd6408fd61122832745a01dd92b
We definitely should have some ability to defend ourselves but I guess we’re a small neutral nation with a small population. If we’re invaded by a superpower of any sort we’re fucked regardless of how many of these we have.
We probably need at least one or two (for redundancy) interceptors to have information but I’d rather put resources into increasing our maritime patrol fleet and Navy.
Our Casa 235 had racked up so many air hours that Airbus have put it in a museum. We have a lot of coastline to patrol given we’re an island nation.
They should buy more Casa 295 (the new ones are great) and invest more in navy recruitment and ships with helicopter.
But then there’s the health system and the housing crisis. No nice choices here.
I’m still convinced the solution isn’t even something like a LCA jets, but investing that same money in a drone fleet. We don’t need fast response fighters so much as multi-role reconnaissance with extended time on station and some payload capacity for light interdiction. Something like the newer versions of the Grey Eagle can spend up to 24 hours on station, and can be packed out with a custom sensor suite to suit the role. They’re a fraction of the price to purchase and operate, and they have far more use in assisting other branches like coastguard/S&R, maritime patrols, and even the potential for overseas support of peacekeeping deployments for the first time ever.
There would be a setup cost to installing the control facilities, but it would still work out cheaper both initially and long term, as well as offering far more flexibility than LCA fighters could.
I wouldn’t know the first place to go to learn about these different military machines, but I’ve also seen Gripens mentioned. I guess cheap but effective is the way to go, whatever that would be.