Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

I think I speak for everyone here when I say, f*** the Daily Torygraph and everything to do with it.

from comments on some of the U.K. defence sites forget it, they have basically be cannibalised for usable spare for the rest of the fleet once they were earmarked for disposal. As for time frames, I’m sure we could get something in a relatively short period, depending on airframes and support from friendly nations, but as ever it comes down to whether the government of the day wants to.

Regarding base security, I'd hazard that it could be managed by the 12th infantry battalion out of Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick with perhaps even some opportunities for RDF units to step up to more duties.

The maintenance and ops work will of course need a significant degree of training for Air Corps but similarly to Saudi and the Gulf states, much of the real work will be done by contractors. We have to ensure though, that our cadre of officers and NCO's are trained to the same standard and work alongside those contractors. Rather than just being uniformed decorative rubber stamps.

On the pilot training, I'd be very much in the contract it out camp. We can operate fast jets with LiFT and specialised training via whomever we buy the airframes from. Eurofighter, Rafale & Gripen all have good training programmes already in play.

We don't need to build or buy capacity for LiFT and it shortens the time to having Irish pilots trained and deployed by a huge margin. It also reduces Capex and risk.

There you go, one air station. And me a town planner and all. Excuse the roughness, I'm on the DART using my finger.

Red - secure outer compound, electronic and sentry security, 5 metre double layer fencing, buried palisade, not wire.

Yellow - extent of new aprons and hard standing. A mix of concrete and permeable paving sections. The control of flooding consequences of this work will have to be carefully managed, with interceptor drains, soak pits and upgraded storm sewers.

Azure - main construction. Hardened main hangar and operations building, including crew accommodation, simulators, gyms, maintenance halls and staff offices. Solar array on roof. Azure dots indicative hardened individual aircraft shelters away from main unit. Also new road access from a widened local Ballycally road and taxiway to main runway 06/24.

Separate decisions to be made on satellite buildings for fire operations, armaments storage, fuelling, service vehicle garages etc, depending on what commonality would be achieved with existing Shannon Airport facilities.

why the feck do they have that hag talking about defence? I mean it would be one thing if it was their defence correspondent, it would still be a Telegraph shitshow, but at least he might have an idea on the subject. RDE, she’s just full of shite full stop.

Of course there are lots of permutations that can be considered but in my view a degree of future-proofing may be wise, lest we end up with a less-than-ideal set-up and the consequential process of trying to add to facilities that should be fit-for-purpose from the outset. Incorporating military infrastructure into a sizeable civil airport will presumably be less straightforward than doing same on DF property, especially given the national propensity for turf wars between different State bodies.

They're only single-seat variants, so with a max of 4 on operational standby, 25 pilots is probably plenty to maintain readiness, though 3 pilots per aircraft in service would be optimum.

It's interesting to consider Czechia in the context of comparable militaries and budgets etc, because those guys have just put a down payment on a €6.6 Billion contract for outright purchase of 24 x Lockheed F-35A.

Their population is twice what ours is, yet their economy is only 60% the size. Even so, they already spend 2% GDP on defence, with a pathway enacted to be at 3% by 2030.

You could argue that geography is a bigger factor for them in defence provision, but then, they don't have a million square kilometres of ocean and airspace to look after, full of who knows what nefarious actors. So really we are no naturally safer than Czechia is, just different. And also they are in NATO, so they do have a natural buffer of strong militaries all around them.

Czechia is a fine example of how not to eff around and just get on and do whats necessary in this climate.

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/irish-air-corps-fighter-jets

I would rather see us getting drones than fighter jets. You won't have to deal with any Top Gun egos😁

But seriously what is the main threat to Ireland that we should be focused on? For me i think that the threat is going to be primarily to the undersea cables off the western coast. I think Irelands role in the future defense of Europe should be to protect those cables. Its a vast area to patrol and we also need an intercept capability.

Let the existing fighter squadron's of Europe look after air superiority.

Also why couldn't a detachment of French AF Rafales not be based in SNN if required? The US has been basing aircraft all over Europe for decades, why can't Europe consider doing the same thing?

I'm all for increasing our military capability but we should be investing in the right capabilities that are really needed for our defense. I think our money could be spent more wisely than fighter jets.

While UAVs are developing at pace I can't think of any that are yet supersonic and has endurance, and they wouldn't be cheap either. Let alone issues like using them in a air policing role.

As to main threat, I don't think you can isolate one area from another, the Bears for example are used for communications with submarines as we've seen off the West Coast before as well. As for "why can't Europe do", well they do actually, European fighter take part in policing/patrols in other nations from Iceland to the Baltic's, however if you think the current histrionics from members of the press/public/politicians about changing the Triple Lock is something, just wait until a government floats a permanent "foreign" military deployed in Shannon. "Holy Shitshow" doesn't even start to cover it.

A LoA3 budget or more for any reasonable period of time would allow us the budget for more than just one area of investment

Shannon won't be making big demands, they're already desperate for it to happen. They made a 9 page submission to the CoDF advocating for the Air Corp to set up there;

I've stuck some money into Dassault this week, the day before their results. I've some other money spread around other Euro Defence stocks too and unfortunately all of it invested since late January, I wish I'd got in a touch earlier.

The Indian fighter tender has a requirement for local production and technology transfer. It'll be huge for whoever gets it and given how well the Rafale has done there so far? It's hard to see past them winning it. A lot of links already built between Dassault and India and French defence industry in general.