Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

@sparky42 ASAIK they were designed to take an air search radar, fitted for but not with. I think the assumption has to be that some basic CIWS or similar would be added at that stage. The noisy P60s are a problem, P31 didn't have that problem!

Its pretty pathetic really. P31 was built in Ireland and designed to a reasonably ambitious standard of sensory capability for its time, plus the aviation facility etc. And we only went backwards after that.

To my mind, any ship we procure from now on should be a proven modular platform, with extensive FFBNW options at whatever level it is. They should be warship designs in the same way that the H145M is a dedicated military helicopter. And God knows there are all manner of Types in service that will perform any possible task the Irish Navy could want.

I hope this is certainly going to be the case for the MRV, and I think we also need to be in on the ground floor of the Modular Multirole Patrol Corvette (former European Patrol Corvette project), which is to say, moving from observer status to participant status within the PESCO order, asap.

Already the way this is shaping up, i.e. two variants, Combat and Long-Range Multi-mission, it presents as ideal to replace the P60s ultimately, or even to slot in above them before they reach the end of their surface life.

I don’t have an issue with the bleed over between maritime and air security, I do have an issue with randomly throwing in/connecting Irish support for UNRWA and Palestinians with the thread though as the poster did? I don’t get the relevancy but maybe that’s me? Would have thought there are other dedicated threads for that?

Lesson learned for future reference.

Again, we are literally only 3 years since the Commission on defence report, you know the one that laid out the levels of ambition, the costings, the broad capabilities that each level would deliver… Saying there's "no concept of a plan" is just wrong, how quickly its being implemented, or questions on whether it needs to be enlarged given how much has changed since then are valid questions. Ignoring it isn't.

We no longer live in a world where something should take years to access

Analytical AI software does it in weeks especially when it comes to Palantir.

Our risks are applied and what is needed comes out with costs

As a side note we have 1 CS for every 26 soldiers

An interesting piece of the article below is it says we almost Zero Air Defence. I think they should rephrase to we have no Air Defence unless they think PC9s are partial air defence.

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2025/02/14/state-may-rely-on-executive-privilege-to-prevent-disclosure-of-secret-uk-air-defence-agreement

After hearing the Vance speech, I think its more a case of when rather than if, Ireland has to invest properly in air and sea defence much to the irk of the free house brigade!!!!

we have them but no radar for them anymore.

this article from a while back sugessted the radar was gone.

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/defence-forces-multi-million-missile-33831300

so as pointed out on the other thread, yes the radars are in service again and it’s 3 we are meant to be giving to Ukraine.

In other news, and more relevant to this topic, I see reports/rumours that the US is to block the sale of GE engines to Columbia, hence killing off the chances of them buying Gripens. Just something to consider in the LoA3 option of procuring fighters, maybe not buying critical and expensive equipment from the states?

Not sure, as I said it's been commented online, but when you consider how long the UK was able to frustrate Argentina from buying new jets, I wouldn't be hugely surprised if the US has some degree of control over its hardware even if it is made in Europe.

I mean its still a "long term" issue for us, but something we should be thinking about.

I read the article as a refresh of the costings. To actually move to LoA 3 is another ball game. The article points out LoA 2 is seen by the military as an essentially staging post before going beyond that due to the currently limited absorption capacity in the military - navy a current example.

To double the Fleet and with the plan to have double crewing that would be a navy of 4k personal. That would be some transformation.

As for Jets there is Grippens knocking around and a deal could be done with our nordic friends for training and spare parts.

Air Station Shannon or Finner?