It's public record that the Irish navy stocks standard high explosive for the 76mm. These use a auto-programmed timer fuse for anti-air, used by Italy and France in the Red Sea vs drones. Prox fuses are available. I didn't claim point defence was "integrated", so check your notes there boss.

DF only said on record it had a role in security. The Journal stated wrongly when it broke the story that the Yeats had no air defence capability other than machine guns. It later said there was only "grainy" footage of the UFOs. All framed in terms of a lack of military capability.

And the reporting is framed around a purported lack of anti-air capability on the Yeats, we-couldn't-so-we-didn't, which we have now established is misleading.

I can't remember what the current version of the story is -- were the UFOs too far away to see on the optics, or too close to shoot with the main gun? Over 1000m and out to 10km you have the main gun; up to 2km you have the .50cal machine guns. The autocannons are for big targets.

It's a gunnery sight. It could be used to observe and adjust fire for any weapon on the ship. But anti-air is the job of the 76mm main gun on the Beckett class, which can be slaved to the optic. Here is a French warship shooting down a quadcoptor with the same 76mm.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiPg...

There is a good chance that whatever new toys we buy to fulfil this role will be derived from the same sighting system fitted to the Beckett class ships, because it's one of the market leaders in the area.

x.com/ThomasByrneT...

The whole thing seems odd. But that hasn't prevented the analysis of unidentified security sources emerging fully-fledged.

We would have spent in the region of £2.5m sterling each to outfit each ship in the Beckett class with those top class gunnery optics a mere 9 years ago, and "security sources" are now complaining the video presumably taken on them is "grainy". Time to think critically about public money.

Interesting that the incident has moved to the far side of Howth Head since someone pointed out that there were civilian aircraft circling above at the time. None of this makes sense. Time to release the "grainy" video which has been reported on elsewhere.

I didn't realize there was quite this degree of haziness about even the vague location these UFO sightings, as the Irish Times was reporting that the Yeats was on station in Dublin Bay. It'll be Berehaven next I suppose...

It was a clear moonlit night; Dublin Bay is 5km in radius, and the fire control optics on the Beckett Class are sold on the basis that they can identify a drone of the sort described on thermal at least that far out and detect them much further. And yet we remain in the realm of assumption.

There is the usual stuff about Ireland having no primary radar, which would have absolutely no ability to pick up something like a quadcopter, an aircraft with less radar cross section than a tea tray.

If the boys can't get some good tape of the alleged drones for the papers with that very nice piece of kit there's not much point buying them new toys, is there.

Now, are we really to believe that that with this sort of imaging capability on the vessel, it was not trained on any of the UFOs in the circumstances that have been described to us? I want to believe...

Here, for instance, is a video from the manufacturer of the Sea Eagle fire control electro-optical system aboard the Beckett showing its ability to track small fast-movinh aerial targets, such as drones.

youtu.be/2DNoxQora-4?...