Associate
- Joined
- 18 Feb 2009
- Posts
- 2,492
- Location
- Behind you
Totally agree. If we had a nuke go off in the UK it's most likely to be terrorist related so who would we nuke back?
Everyone, just to be sure. Hence why we need Trident.
Totally agree. If we had a nuke go off in the UK it's most likely to be terrorist related so who would we nuke back?
My constable friend in the police will retire early with similar figures. I don't begrudge him it, but darn it seems like a lot of money for 25 years of service.
We are top heavy, but any loss in the military is a sad one. Too many jobs going, so much experience lost. Be nice if they made it up within the lower ranks, sadly this won't be the case.
When in the last 50yrs have we needed trident! Oh right never! Especially more so where the threat isn't sovereign nations it's terrorists! They will just use a dirty bomb. There's no point in 2015 to spending £20bn on a weapon that won't ever be used, it doesn't deter terrorists or anyone else
We all know the days when Britain was a superpower are long gone, we can't afford massive armed forces anymore and don't really have the need for them given we don't have an empire any more. Given that I can't help feeling the solution is to combine the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Airforce into a single command structure - think Israeli Defence Forces or US Marine Corps type structure. The inter-service rivalry we have just seems to cause more problems than it solves.
NEM is out in april and a new SDR after the election, well within your 10 months. careful!10 months to go to my 22yr point (military). Can't wait to qualify for my IP before they mess with it all again or they bin me during another round of SDSR!
Agreed on not amalgamating the separate services. It would be an absolute cluster. We work in a joint force environment perfectly well as we are, there would be no need to make one defence force.
5th largest economy - 27thish largest military.
Isn't it something to do with specializing in different types of warfare? By retaining the knowledge at the top, new troops can be brought in and trained up should the need arise to fight in Snow or Jungle for example.
Let me ask you this: the annual cost of Trident is about £2.5bn. The UK foreign aid budget is £10bn per year. If you're concerned about money, why not just cut £2.5bn from our aid budget.
10 months to go to my 22yr point (military). Can't wait to qualify for my IP before they mess with it all again or they bin me during another round of SDSR!
I will be getting about half of what a civvy copper gets, but in 22yrs, not 30 and ours is non-contribution.
better idea cut 10bn from foreign aid budget.
We all know the days when Britain was a superpower are long gone, we can't afford massive armed forces anymore and don't really have the need for them given we don't have an empire any more. Given that I can't help feeling the solution is to combine the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Airforce into a single command structure - think Israeli Defence Forces or US Marine Corps type structure. The inter-service rivalry we have just seems to cause more problems than it solves.
That's changing though. Those with 10 years or less to go still get the full 1987 pension. Those with more will work more, pay more and get less.
The US Marine Corps is a branch of the US Navy. The US still has an air force and army.
However as he stated, the USMC is also a standalone force with it's own Air, Land and Sea units so it can operate without the need for the others but only in a very localised area, not globally.
Training is carried out by senior NCOs, not officers.
I understand that but it is still part of a tri service military with the rivalry that goes with it.
That said, does the marine corps not need US Navy carriers to fly their F18s from ?