A/N: This originally was going to be a discussion with the Prime Minister looking at the recommendations for what Britain can do within the SG-Program. However, I realised that there wasn't any discussion about the various counters the SGC had developed, such as the X-302s and X-303s, so I've slipped those in here instead. I was planning on about 1000 words in total for this section, but it somehow grew to almost 3000 words. Any discussion of military capabilities of various bits of equipment is my own opinion, and not informed by actual military experience.

"Gentlemen. If you could retake your seats, we'll continue with the briefing. General Walker, if you could give us a brief overview of the personal weapons and armour currently in use or in development by the SGC to assist their fight against the Goa'uld."

"Thank you Minister. Unfortunately, unlike what TV and movies would have us believe, the SGC haven't magically developed laser weapons or ray guns in order to fight the Goa'uld. They still use the same weapons the rest of the US armed forces use. However, what is different is the ammunition they use. While the majority of ammunition that both the US armed forces and the British Armed forces use is Ball, or soft-core, ammunition, due to the armour worn by the Jaffa that the SG-teams regularly come into contact with, the SGC almost exclusively uses modified armour-piercing rounds within their weapons.

"The standard armour that the Jaffa wear is a Steel-Trinium alloy, composed of overlapping armour plates and chainmail. There is a chainmail undershirt, with a flexible chest and backplate composed of multiple, linked plates and a gorget covering both shoulders and extending halfway down their chest. The armour also comprises wrist bracers, with an attachment point for a Zat'nik'tel weapon, and armoured, knee-length boots, both also either comprised of, or reinforced with, the Steel-Trinium alloy.

"The composition, and thickness of the armour, which on average is approximately 1/2 inch thick, means that unless very lucky, standard rounds will either simply flatten on impact, or only partially penetrate the armour. The SGC realised this very early on, and were able to requisition armour piercing rounds for their weapons. However, even with these AP rounds, they were noticing that their rounds were failing to penetrate Jaffa armour on numerous occasions, requiring multiple rounds to kill or severely injure each Jaffa Warrior. As such, they have recently begun modifying their AP rounds, increasing the muzzle velocity to provide a greater penetration potential, while also coating the tip of the bullet in Trinium, again to allow it a significantly increased penetrative potential against Jaffa armour. Since the introduction of these rounds, the SGC has noticed a significant reduction in the number of rounds needed to take down a Jaffa Warrior, and a corresponding drop in the number of casualties suffered by SG-teams during encounters.

"Moving onto body armour developments. Unfortunately I can't offer the same positive note regarding this. It appears, mainly due to the shoestring budget that the SGC is operating under, that they haven't been able to develop a body armour capable of withstanding a Staff Weapon blast. Standard plate armour, such as used by both the US and British armed forces, is designed for impact protection, and as such is almost useless against the plasma used by the Jaffa weapons. Tests conducted by the SGC has shown that in about 50% of cases, the body armour will simply shatter upon impact, resulting in severe injuries and almost certain death for the wearer, while in the other 50%, the armour melted due to the heat of the plasma round, causing at least 2nd degree burns, but more likely 3rd degree or worse.

"As such, due to this, the majority of the SG-teams eschew the use of full plate armour, as in this case it's benefits are overwhelmingly out-weighed by it's drawbacks, preferring instead a tactical vest with ballistic inserts.

"With this in mind, I believe that one of our initial main focus' needs to be the development of body armour capable of withstanding the impact of a Staff Weapon. As our current weapons, with the modifications to the armour-piercing rounds made by the SGC, are capable of functioning against the vast majority of opponents encountered by the SGC, and the plasma weapons are not always effective, I do not see a need for an urgent development of weapons technology yet to create our own plasma weaponry. Saying that however, it may be worthwhile experimenting with various ammunition types and sizes to see if there is a more effective weapon and round than the current 5.56mm."

"Thank you General. Just briefly, before we move on, in terms of heavy support for troops, such as transport vehicles or armoured vehicles. Is there any possibility of deploying these through the Stargate in support of troops?"

"Unfortunately, due to several factors, it is unlikely that we would be able to deploy such equipment through the Stargate. One major factor is the size of the Stargate. The internal diameter is 4.95m, but similar to trying to insert a square peg into a round hole, the width of the peg, or vehicle, would have to be significantly smaller than that. It is possible that certain vehicles, such as variants of the CVR-T family, for example the Scimitar Reconnaisance vehicle, would be able to fit through the Stargate, but without testing, we can't be sure, especially under combat conditions. The other main issue with deploying vehicles is the SGC. There really isn't enough room in the Gateroom to base a vehicle and deploy it through the Stargate. Plus the only way to get a vehicle into the Gateroom in the first place is to lower it down from the surface through the missile test silo as all of the corridors are far too small for anything other than remote control probes and small equipment carriers."

At this, Geoff Hoon sighed slightly, "Well, although disappointing, that's understandable. Thank you General. Now we will go over the fighter-craft that the SGC have developed for the defence of Earth. Air Chief Marshal Squire, if you would?"

"Of course Minister. Over the time that the SGC has been in operation, they have designed and prototyped two different aero-space fighters, designated the X-301 and X-302.

"Firstly, the X-301. This was their first attempt at an aero-space fighter and, to put it bluntly, it was an unmitigated disaster. Following Apophis's attempt to attack Earth in 1998, the SGC managed to recover two damaged, almost to the point of crippled, Death Gliders. However, rather than doing what would be the more sensible option, of tearing them apart and reverse engineering the technology in them, they instead decided to merge them together, repair what they could, remove what they couldn't, slap some USAF stickers and a control unit on it, and called it a prototype.

"Although I'm sure that I don't need to explain the many issues with that idea, the main problem, and why it was classed as a failure, is that there was a program embedded in the Glider, installed by Apophis, which over-rode all the controls and set it on a ballistic course out of the atmosphere, and indeed out of the system. This program was installed as a way of ensuring that if a traitor Jaffa managed to steal the Glider, they would be trapped in the Glider and die as it flew on a ballistic course.

"Luckily, the SGC were able to contact the Tok'ra, who dispatched one of their operatives in a Tel'tak to rescue the two test pilots, Colonel Jack O'Neill and Teal'c of SG-1. They survived, but the X-301, and any potential technology research from it was lost.

"The stated aim for the X-301, was for it to act as a prototype for at least a squadron's worth of fighters to defend Earth against Goa'uld attack. . . "

Here Air Chief Marshal Squire paused for a few seconds, as several quiet sounds of amusement came from a couple of the people sitting around the table.

"Quite how they planned to secure the number of Death Gliders necessary to construct that squadron, and ship them back through the gate is anyone's guess though.

"Instead of the two plasma cannon's normally mounted on a Death Glider, it was instead equipped with two AIM-120 Air to Air missiles, modified with a Naquadah-enhanced warhead and fitted with a shield-modulator - this would ostensibly allow the missile to bypass Goa'uld shields and impact the hull of ships, although even after multiple attempts, this technology still does not appear to work.

"This change in armament resulted in the X-301 being far less tactically capable than the Death Glider, and in fact far less capable in general than the Death Glider due to being constructed from two damaged Death Gliders, resulting in it being slower and less manoeuvrable.

"After the failure of the X-301, the SGC set about designing their own version, which they call the X-302. Like the X-301, this has been designed to be an aero-space fighter to defend Earth against Goa'uld attack, however it is also planned for this fighter to be based on the X-303 Battlecruiser prototype that they are also building, although I will let Admiral West discuss that later.

"The X-302, for some reason, has been designed to be very similar in appearance to the Death Glider, although for some reason it is far larger than it. The Death Glider is almost 8 metres long, with a wingspan of just over 13 metres, whereas the X-302 is just over 13 metres long, with a wingspan of 26 metres. In comparison, the Jaguar fighter has a wingspan of just 10 metres while the Harrier is even smaller at only 8 metres wingspan." Here he paused as once again, there were several shocked sounds coming from a few of the people in the room. "In addition to that, one of the roles of the X-302 is to act as a shipborne fighter, on board the X-303's. As you can imagine, the sheer size of it precludes a large number of them being carried. Carrier-borne planes have, pretty much since their invention, had at least some type of folding wing, to allow a larger number to be carried. Even the Goa'uld Death Gliders have this ability, with their wings hinging almost exactly at the point where they meet the fuselage. And yet the X-302 does not have this capacity, and it is very unlikely that it will in the near future.

"With regards to the X-302's capabilities, other than their space capability, inertial dampeners and speed, they don't actually offer any real advantages over any of our existing combat aircraft. And in fact, with regards to actual combat ability, our current planes completely outstrip it."

At this, the civilian's in the room, even Geoff Hoon, looked at Air Chief Marshal Squire with shock. It took almost a full minute for anyone to recover from their shock enough to actually voice a question. "What do you mean by that Air Chief Marshal? Surely an advanced, space-capable fighter would far out-perform any of our current, or even planned fighter planes?"

"Not really Minister. While yes, as I said, the use of advanced engines and inertial dampeners within the X-302 allows it far greater speed and turning ability, it only has 4 hard points mounted under its wings for attaching air-to-air missiles. The US are also apparently planning on installing a pair of railguns in the nose fuselage, although the current prototype doesn't have that capability yet, to allow for some dog-fighting capability. In comparison, the Jaguar fighter has 7 hard-points, together with 2 30mm cannon, the Harrier has 8 hard-points with 2 25mm cannon and even the new Typhoon has 13 hard-points with a single 27mm cannon. All of those by the way, are on airframes which are less than half the width of the X-302, with one being less than a third of it's width.

"As such, as the design currently stands, the X-302 could engage a maximum of 4 enemy aircraft before being forced to withdraw to rearm. When added to the fact that there is only a single squadron of 8 X-302's based on an X-303, compared to the 72 Death Gliders carried by a Ha'tak, in 6 squadrons of 12, and the idea just becomes ludicrous. The X-302's would have to launch, perform a 1-shot-1-kill with every missile they carry, land, re-arm and launch again, and do the same thing over again, and still have to re-arm to take out the remaining Death Gliders. And that doesn't even account for any X-302's being destroyed in at any point."

As he finished and sat back down, there was mutterings of shock coming from the various people sitting around the table. Geoff Hoon took almost a full minute to gather himself together before he could continue the meeting.

"Air Chief Marshal, I don't want to seem as if I'm disputing that assessment, you are after all the expert here, but it just seems ludicrous that a modern, extremely advanced, space-capable fighter can be out-performed, at least in terms of combat ability, by some of the oldest in our current inventory. Anyway, discounting that, Admiral West, if you could provide us with an overview of the X-303 battlecruiser that the SGC has under construction?"

"Thank you Minister, although I would start off by saying, no matter what the SGC's designation is for the X-303, a battlecruiser it isn't."

Geoff Hoon looked confused slightly at that blunt reply, before asking "I don't quite follow Admiral. Could you explain what you mean by that statement?"

"Certainly. A battlecruiser, historically, was essentially a ship that mounted battleship sized guns while having cruiser armour, resulting in greater speed than a battleship. The large guns and high speed allowed them to chase down lighter ships and sink them, while at the same time being able to run away from any ships with similar or larger calibre weaponry. The X-303 however, it's armament consists of 16 railguns and 12 nuclear missile tubes, similar to those on the Vanguard class submarines, and while the nuclear missiles, especially enhanced with Naquadah, are capable of destroying a Ha'tak in 1 or 2 hits if they impact the hull, they first need to get through the shields, and that is something that has been proven time and again they are not capable of doing. The railguns theoretically could strip the shields, but based on the strength of the railgun rounds compared to the shield strength of a Ha'tak, it would almost completely deplete the ship's armoury to strip the shields of just a single Ha'tak. Plus if they are firing on the Ha'tak, they are not performing their primary function of air defence.

"As previously mentioned, the X-303 has been designed to carry a total of 8 X-302's in an internal hangar located just below the command tower. This hangar is only just capable of carrying those 8 fighters, and doesn't have any space for any other vessels, such as scout ships or even a shuttle. Granted, the SGC doesn't seem to have thought about those at the moment as there is no indication in any of the information they've provided to us that they are developing them, but still. If they want to explore a system, or gather intelligence on a planet's defences, the ship itself would have to enter the system, with the risks that entails, or steal a ship from another race, such as a Tel'tak, which likely wouldn't be as effective as a purpose-designed and built scout vessel would.

"In current naval terms, it is trying to be a fleet submarine, an air-defence destroyer and a carrier, all in one platform. And unfortunately, it fails at being any one of them, let alone all of them. They're trying to have a multi-purpose ship, but currently the only role it actually succeeds in is as a surface to orbit and hyperspace capable transport."

At this rather blunt and disparaging assessment of the X-303 and it's capabilities, especially following on from the equally blunt and unfavourable assessment of the X-302, everyone in the room was shocked into silence. Even the military members, although they were somewhat aware of the limitations of the two designs, were astounded at just how many issues they had. In all, it took nearly 5 minutes before Admiral Boyce cleared his throat and stood up.

"Thank you gentlemen for your analyses. Our duty now is, using this information provided, to determine the best way for Britain to be involved in the Stargate Program, and ensure that the Prime Minister has the best advice possible for this. We will mainly focus on the military side, as the Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary's will no doubt be focusing on the civilian and political side. So, gentlemen, any thoughts?"

A/N: I know I have been a bit brutal with the analysis of the X-302 and X-303, but I hope people can see my point on this. If my analysis is completely wrong, do let me know, and I will see if I can include/alter it in the text.

Special thanks to A Kahn and thegreatpl on SpaceBattles for the idea of the CVR-T usage through the Gate.