EU 6th Gen fighter jet is dead

Your weekly dose of defence news, biased opinions and poorly curated content. You’re welcome.

The French-German-Spanish next-generation fighter jet programme has officially collapsed, with both France and Germany formally signing off on its termination. This leaves Germany at a crossroads: do they plough ahead with a sovereign programme (which is already being discussed by defence manufacturers), or - shock horror - do they jump into bed with the Brits, who are, incredibly, quite a bit further ahead in development with the ol' Tempest?

Whether Tempest survives contact with the Treasury is another matter entirely.

For normal people (not me), £1 million is quite a lot of money. But in military terms it's basically nothing, and when stretched over three years it becomes a rounding error. And yet, ladies and gentlemen, that is the sum total the MOD has spent on design work for the Royal Navy's new Type 83 destroyer.

I've come up with a game called "How can we waste more money?". It’s pretty simple - you pay taxes and the government just sets fire to it.

Drum roll please for the top 4:

No one really knows much about the plan that the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Andy Burnham, has for... well, anything. Although he has said he'll spend more on defence.

Not much more, but more. Apparently he'll cover the cost through welfare reform. Heard that before, bud.

We're watching.

Big events from the past, covered in brief and probably inaccurately.

On 25 June 1950, North Korean forces crossed the 38th Parallel, kicking off the Korean War. Three years later, millions were dead, Britain had committed more than 80,000 troops, and the world had received its first real taste of post World War conflict.

Despite the scale of the fighting, it's still known as "The Forgotten War" - which is bleak, considering the 1,100 British servicemen who never came home.

Changing things up? This is where we briefly look at career options from across the civvy world - everything goes here so expect some absolute drivel. Sometimes Forces Assist can help place you, sometimes we can’t. Either way we can offer advice.

Gas engineers - starting north of £32k with a decent benefits package. Can take newly qualified ACS peeps. Reply to this email or fill in this form (just ignore the driving question and put your gas quals in the notes). As always, if you give us the name of someone who is looking for work and they pass probation, we’ll send you £500 no questions asked.

Bored of asking - they’ll love Despatches and we’ll love them.

Cheers,

Team Forces Assist

forcesassist.com