Britain's Defences

Except that Saetias comment said that it would not happen i.e. that the OP's post was moot because we hold WMD's - I was signalling my agreement with this POV.

But the point itself was superficial because it only scratched the surface. That's the point I'm making.
 
But the point itself was superficial because it only scratched the surface. That's the point I'm making.

and I respectfully disagree with you - the statement has, so far, proven to be true afterall. the poster could have typed more, sure, but i feel that it was succinct :)
 
Modern day wars wouldn't be like the old WW2 style storm the beach ones because of nuclear weapons and more powerful warheads. Imagine D-Day if nukes existed back then. All the troops would have been wiped out with one bomb.

If China decided to attack the UK they would have to come through loads of countries to get to the UK who probably wouldn't be too happy about it!

There would be absolutely no reason though for any country to invade the UK. There simply isn't anything there! No natural resources, oil, etc. If it was europe against the world then maybe because the UK could be used as a staging area surrounded by water it would be a useful asset, but other than that there is no reason why anyone would want to inherit the large debt, chavs and binge drinking culture. China is simply doing too well exporting all it's goods to be bothered about a war.

That said, since moving to new zealand I have realised that if china decided to invade here the single bi-plane airforce wouldn't last long :D
 
Most of the thinking by the governments new military think tank seems to be leaning towards a local conflict, more than likely in a middle eastern country. SDSR is currently attempting to resolve the issues that have already been mentioned here i.e. wrong type of forces for certain types of conflict.

Of course if the government can scrape back some money they would find that helpful too. The only part I find quite sad in all of the recent SDSR furor, is the way some chiefs of staff have blatantly sat in front of a TV screen advocating their particular service, I'm sure the government are fully aware of the work each individual service carries out.
 
If China was to invade the UK, it would signal an extreme political change that would endanger everyone, so I think WW3 would start.

Imagine you're the leader of any other country. China invades the UK, in violation of no end of treaties. If they're that hell-bent on conquering other countries on a campaign of conquest, they're not going to stop at the UK. Your country might well be next, or the one after that. Time to ally and fight.

But it's a moot point because why would they? Countries fight wars for a reason. Economic? No. Conquering the UK would not gain money for China. It would lose money for China because it would cost them trade. Resources? What resources do we have that China doesn't have much more of? Ideological? You need a severe raging hatred for that and it doesn't exist. Religious? Likewise.

If China was to conquer the UK, it would be a cultural conquest on the back of economic power, not a military conquest.

Other big countries, same story. Many of them couldn't do it anyway. France? Canada?
 
To be honest the only country we have to fear is the USA.

and I'd be happy to sign up to **** the USA.



Yes because American is really going to chuck a wobbly and and attack its closest Ally:rolleyes:

China couldnt invade, They realy too much on other countries resources to stay afloat.

If they really felt like it they could fund North Korea or the Taliban with Money and weapons and have them do the dirty work for them.
 
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Well, if china wanted to attack they would first need to get here! I dont know the state of their navy/airforce, but if they sent a fleet out with the intentions of invading a European country I doubt they would get far.
 
Isn't China's army pretty much conscripted?

Saying that, I would crap myself if we went to war with them for any reason at all. But lets be honest, America will most likely back us up.
 
Geo-politics aside, they'd never manage it. They may have superior numbers and industrial might, but we have a better trained, professional army, superior weapons, far, far more experience of modern war and (perhaps most importantly) the advantage of being an island. Of course we're referring to conventional, non-nuclear warfare here.

Moreover, it retaliation we'd likely be able to launch deep penetration strikes with our fighter-bombers from bases in Japan (an ally) or use our ship\sub-launched American made cruise missile to attack their industrial infrastructure.
 
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China's armed forces have numbers, but they are mainly conscripted, poorly trained and equipped compared to our own. China also has limited power projection of it's armed forces, so would require a massive investment in long range conventional weapons systems and a massive investment in its bluewater naval capability. In any war on Britain, without first securing land based supply lines through eastern and western Europe (which would require invasion or cooperation from Russia and northern Europe) then Chinese forces would be seriously out gunned and easily out manoeuvred by the smaller, better trained, better equipped and technically superior British Naval and Airborne forces.

The main problem when contemplating a Chinese invasion of Britain is that we have several treaties, NATO had been mentioned, we also have a mutual defence treaty with the United States which would require them to respond.

The most important thing to consider however is that in an official declaration of War and subsequent invasion China would be in effect declaring war and invading the EU, not only Britain. Economically and Militarily the EU are vastly superior to China, this would require China to commit forces to an invasion and huge resources to hold Britain if it were successful.

This would leave China itself vulnerable to attack from it's neighbours and more importantly it would leave it unable to respond to internal pressures from it's own people and would in all likelihood fall to a coup or descend into civil war very quickly.

In short, it is highly unlikely that China would either have the resources or political will to attack Britain, and even if it did, any invasion would be short lived.

I purposely haven't mentioned the use of nuclear weapons as that would change the demographic of an invasion into a World War of mutual destruction which is not what the OP implies.
 
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Sorry for the double post, but forgot to say that this is actually a really interesting thread and I've enjoyed reading the replies!
 
Hi guys, was having a debate with my mate in the pub earlier about the state of our navy and defence etc....

What chance have we got if say a big country like China wanted to invade?
(using China as an example) Would we be able to protect our little 'vulnerable' island?

3-4 little submarines sailing in parts unknown which would obliterate their cites or military.

of course they'd do the same to us so we both leave each other alone


But in a conventional war china either has to plough it's way through every country on it's way to us or go on the longest sea invasion of the modern age, subjected to months of aerial and naval attack.
 
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