South African firm wins Irish Army vehicle contract

Who is talking about Irish cake?

We may purchase equipment for the Irish Defence Forces, but our economy is €30 Trillion and 450,000,000 people large.

Its not for Ireland to decide to include or exclude UK built defence equipment. If its in the best long term interest of the European Union for all member states to exclude them, then they are excluded. End of story.

My guess is you'll see the EU come down to maybe €1.5 Billion of an invoice for the UK to have parity access to the EU defence funds. And they will damn well pay it too, if they want to protect the 400,000+ British jobs dependent on healthy order books in the defence sector.

You should check out the date on the thread :)

leaving aside rhetoric shitshow that is U.K. procurement at the moment the reality is that unless there’s massive cost differences buying from the other EU suppliers makes more sense for different reasons. First in terms of just sheer reality that many of the U.K. defence buys are “buy British” with only the U.K. using them, second sheer diplomatic issues. Given our standard “take the piss” approach to defence, we have slightly “annoyed” the rest of the EU, buying EU might help there.

An "Army man" eh? Was he carrying two pints by any chance?

If you are here fishing for people to make speculative and uninformed remarks that may be potentially libelous, you won't get much luck around here.

An "Army man" eh? Was he carrying two pints by any chance?

If you are here fishing for people to make speculative and uninformed remarks that may be potentially libelous, you won't get much luck around here.

No, of course it isn't when you're not being specific, but at the same time, if you have any hard evidence beyond your own made up speculation and a phantom malodour, take it to a newspaper or make a protected disclosure.

I'd say the same to anyone.

I am curious to the long list of lemons?

I know the Timoneys were short lived and the landsverk unimogs were downright dangerous but what else was there?

Not meant as a criticism, just curious.

that maybe be more a “let’s not fall out before Paddy’s day” answer, the same week the Republicans attacked us along with other EU nations for trying to limit social media shenanigans during elections.
Since as Mupper pointed out we still aren’t actually buying anything, it costs her nothing to fob them off.

When it comes to any of the vehicle fleet that we might actually buy (at some point, maybe, if they really have no choice), the various European platforms cover off anything we would need and have fairly widespread fleets in use. As opposed to the UK's land procurement which is, as mentioned utterly ****, and the US procurement which is likely to end up more expensive even without politics.

From a quick google

"Four Comets were delivered to the Irish Army in 1959 and a further four in 1960. Severe budget cutbacks affected the service lives of the Comets, as not enough spares were purchased. The Comet appealed to the Irish Army as it was cheap to buy and run, had low ground pressure and good anti-tank capability. However, faulty fuzes meant the withdrawal of the HE ammunition, which limited the tank's role to an anti-tank vehicle. With stocks of 77 mm ammunition dwindling in 1969, the army began an experiment to prolong the life of the vehicle. It involved replacing the turret with an open mounting with the Bofors 90 mm Pv-1110 recoilless rifle. The project was cancelled due to lack of funds. The last 77 mm Comet shoot was in 1973 with the tanks being withdrawn soon afterwards. One is preserved in the Irish Curragh Camp and two more survive in other barracks.

Also

John Kirke
We seem to have forgotten why the Air Corps had Seafire fighter aircraft… they were part of a project to acquire a basic air defence capability.. the other parts of that were the Type 15 mobile radar system, and control centre in Air Station Gormanston, exercises and training led by Comdt Des Johnston who had undergone Ground Control Interception training in the RAF, and an AC personnel establishment that provided for the staffing of the capability.. c.1949 the CoS outlined to the Dept of Defence what a basic requirement would be and estimated £1m would be required.. needless to say it went nowhere…

and

John Kirke
The sequel to the Seafires fighter is that they were never replaced… two seat Spitfire advanced trainers were acquired but that was for a different role… the radar, already obsolescent, was scrapped and the control centre was converted to a pilot training facility with a Link Trainer when the AC was tasked with training pilots for Aer Lingus..

and from FaceAche

but some references suggest that the UK government refused to supply the requested Mk IX's but would consent to the Seafires, that were bought up to Mk V Spitfire standard.

and AI

Initial Request: In the immediate post-war period, Ireland requested Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXs to replace the Hurricanes.

Resulting Supply: The UK government refused to supply the requested Mk IXs at that time, and instead, the IAC acquired 12 "de-navalised" Seafire LF.IIIs in 1947.

Later Acquisition: While the initial request for Mk IX fighters was denied, the Irish Department of Defence did place an order on September 21, 1950, for six Spitfire Trainer (T.Mk 9) aircraft to train pilots for the Seafire fleet. These were delivered between May and July 1951.

And

The Seafires that were operated by the Irish Air Corps were all de-navalised before delivery.