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Bristling with cutting-edge technology and carrying an awesome array of weaponry, the Royal Navy’s new destroyer HMS Dauntless is said to be one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful warships. But the £1 billion ($1.61 billion) vessel was left helpless and stranded—when a £10 ($16) fuse apparently blew. Dauntless was left without power and plunged into darkness. According to one source on board, the ship was ‘drifting for several minutes’ before the fault was corrected. No official cause for the problem has been given, but Navy insiders suggested that the fuse blew because a complicated water-cooling system had not been...

LONDON (AP) — Britain's defense secretary is ditching proposals to buy a particular type of F-35 Joint StrikeFighter — reverting to an original plan previously criticized by Prime Minister David Cameron. Defense Secretary Philip Hammond told lawmakers Thursday that Britain would no longer purchase F-35c variants of the Lockheed Martin Corp. fighter jet because the cost of modifications to ships needed to accommodate the plane would be about 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion). The jet's design — which does not include vertical take-off and landing — means aircraft carriers would need to be fitted with catapults and arrester gears. Hammond...

Life on Royal Navy's Falklands-bound HMS Dauntless It is one of the Royal Navy's most advanced and powerful warships, now on its way to the other side of the world; destination - the Falkland Islands. HMS Dauntless is the largest destroyer ever built for the Royal Navy, made from nearly 3,000 tonnes of steel. Its wide hull helps to support its two massive radar. This Type 45 destroyer is radically different in design from earlier warships. The sleek, angled lines means it appears no larger than a fishing boat on another ship's radar. It is the navy's first stealth warship....

New warplanes 'less capable', secret paper shows Britain’s Armed Forces will be less able to undertake future military operations with the fighter jets ministers are preparing to buy in a cost-saving exercise, secret defence plans have revealed. The Daily Telegraph has seen a Ministry of Defence document setting out secret contingency planning for future British military operations in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Falklands and Africa. The highly-classified report which shows that planners have grave doubt on the jump-jets ministers now want to buy for the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers. David Cameron is poised to approve a decision to abandon...

Cameron in humiliating u-turn on future of Britain's aircraft carriers with return of jump jet David Cameron has agreed to an embarrassing U-turn on the future of the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers. The Prime Minister has decided to reverse a decision on the type of jets due to fly from the two warships. In doing so he has returned to a plan by Labour that he once derided as an ‘error’. Senior Downing Street sources say Mr Cameron has decided to follow military advice and abandon plans to buy the conventional F-35C Joint Strike Fighter after costs soared by £1.8billion....

Type 26: The future backbone of the Royal Navy 05 April 2012 Brian Johnson, UK business development director at BAE Systems, answers questions about the Type 26 Global Combat Ship Can you provide some detail on the size and makeup of the team involved, their experience levels and the overall working approach to the design process? The team working on the Type 26 programme is currently around 250 strong. The team is centred in Bristol but a large design team is also based at BAE Systems' facility at Scotstoun in Glasgow. The team is a genuine 'rainbow' team comprising of...

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be the new multirole fast jet for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. It will serve as the strike capability for the new Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier and will partner the Typhoon to form the future fast jet fleet for the RAF. It is a multinational acquisition programme led by the United States in partnership with eight other nations, including the UK. There are three variants of the F-35: F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) F-35B Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35C Carrier Variant (CV) The UK selected the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in...

The Government is poised to perform an about-turn on its choice of plane to fly from two new aircraft carriers that will enter service in 2020. Senior officers have advised the Prime Minister to axe plans to buy the Joint Strike Fighter F-35C after the cost of converting the carriers to use them rose to £2 billion – on top of the £6.2 billion cost of building the vessels. The F-35C is propelled off the deck by a catapult, and "trapped" when it lands. Commanders have formally recommended that the Government buy the F-35B, which operates like a Harrier jump...

Converting HMS Prince of Wales so that it can be used by the Joint Strike Fighter will require significantly less than the £2 billion quoted by officials, the assistant secretary of the US Navy, Sean J Stackley, insisted. In a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph, he told Peter Luff, the defence procurement minister, that the necessary equipment would cost £458 million before installation. Defence experts estimate the installation cost at £400  million. The letter was sent to Mr Luff before the Prime Minister met Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, at an emergency meeting about the carrier on Monday. The...

Scrapping the Trident nuclear missile system would save £83.5bn and many of the jobs at risk could be transferred to alternative defence projects, according to an authoritative study published on Wednesday. An average annual saving of £1.86bn would be made until 2062, it says. The study, commissioned by senior figures from all three main parties, points out that the savings would not be available immediately because cancellation and decommissioning costs would have to be taken into account. The report, by Professor Keith Hartley, a leading defence economist, is published by a commission set up by the British American Security Information...

Building the world's most advanced ships was never going to be plain sailing It’s news to reassure anyone who's worried that the sovereignty of the people and penguins of Port Stanley has been put at risk by government defence cuts. Defence sources have told the Evening Standard newspaper that Britain’s two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers – currently under construction – are ‘unnecessarily large for the needs of the Royal Navy’. 'Unnecessarily large': An artist's impression of a Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier, two of which are under construction for the Royal Navy There is even the suggestion that the...

Daring enjoys ‘truly amazing’ experience working with American carriers 20/03/2012 Britain’s most advanced warship, HMS Daring, has worked with two American aircraft carrier groups as her Gulf mission steps up a gear. The new destroyer has been showing off her air defence and fighter control prowess with the USS Carl Vinson and Abraham Lincoln and their task groups. Turning away from the most powerful surface ship in the world is the most advanced warship in the Royal Navy. On her maiden deployment, HMS Daring has worked with not one but two US Carrier Strike Groups – here the USS Carl...

Peru cancels visit by British frigate over Falkland Islands Peru has cancelled an upcoming visit by a Royal Navy frigate to the country as tensions between Britain and Latin America mount over the Falkland Islands. HMS Montrose was scheduled to dock at Peru's El Callao naval base this week, but the visit has been cancelled by Peru in a show of solidarity with Argentina. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has criticised Britain’s territorial rights to the Falkland Islands, known in Latin America as the Malvinas. The dispute comes ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war in April,...

It is reported that spiralling costs for the new aircraft carrier programme could force the Government to scrap the cat and trap version of the new Joint Strike Fighter in favour of a jump-jet variant. The Guardian and the Telegraph newspapers both report Defence Secretary Philip Hammond wants a U-turn after projected costs for modifying the carriers to take the F-35C fighters reached as much as two billion pounds. It is understood Prime Minister David Cameron has been warned the carrier programme could be delayed by as much as seven years – or until 2027 – if existing plans are...

A possible UK decision to reverse a variant switch on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would not cause a problem for Lockheed Martin, according to one of the company's senior programme officials. Speculation has mounted over recent weeks that the UK government could backtrack on its decision to shift its interest in the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B to the C-model carrier variant. The move was included as part of its Strategic Defence and Security Review of late 2010, but has prompted concerns over the costs involved with modifying the Royal Navy's future Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers with...

Cost of refitting Royal Navy aircraft carrier trebles The costs of refitting a Royal Navy aircraft carrier so it can be used by a new generation of fighter jets have more than trebled, defence sources have told The Daily Telegraph. Estimates for adapting HMS Prince of Wales so that it can be used by the Joint Strike Fighter are understood have risen from £500 million to £1.8 billion. Millions have already been spent on studies to look at how to convert the ship after ministers decided to scrap the jump-jet variant of the plane in favour of a conventional take-off and landing...

US 'taken aback' by HMS Astute 06 March 2012 The United States Navy was 'blown away' by the performance of HMS Astute during sea trials in the Atlantic recently, the ship's commanding officer has said. Commander Ian Breckenridge, 45, led HMS Astute through four-and-a-half months of sea trials off the US east coast and said the submarine had demonstrated "tremendous capability". "We met and surpassed every expectation. She is just better than any other submarine I have ever been on," he said. During the trials, Astute took part in simulated battles with American Virginia Class submarine USS New Mexico, deep...

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed it is reviewing parts of the programme to build two new aircraft carriers for the Royal navy, throwing doubt over the planned use of the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter plane. This decision could have a major impact on BAE Systems, which is involved in the aircraft's development. The cost of the two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers - originally ordered under the last Labour government - have already risen dramatically from £3.5 billion to around £7 billion. Changes ordered by the coalition government could see those costs rise even further. The current confusion is...

UK aircraft carrier plans in confusion as ministers revisit square one Decision expected by Easter on which US joint strike fighter Britain will buy: ministers now want to revert to original choice Britain's troubled and increasingly expensive plan to equip the navy with new aircraft carriers has been plunged into fresh turmoil as ministers consider reversing their earlier decision to change the type of plane that should fly from them, it has emerged. The government announced in last autumn's strategic defence review that it had decided to buy the "cats and flaps" (catapults and arrester gear) version of the US...

France Could Loan Rafales to Royal Navy (Source: defense-aerospace.com; published Feb. 22, 2012) PARIS --- The Anglo-French defense initiative announced last week did not mention bilateral cooperation on aircraft carriers because Britain still has to firm up its intentions in this field, according to France’s top weapons buyer. Lauren Collet-Billon, head of the Direction Generale de l’Armement, said during a Feb. 22 press conference here that Britain still has to finalize its aircraft carrier plans, including major technical options such as the kind of catapults it wants to fit to its new aircraft carriers, and what kind of aircraft these...