Britain's Defences

Firestar_3x said:
I think given the spending on the MRA4's calling it quite now to save a few quid is the biggest mistake they are making, the second being the Ark Royal.

They could maintain a token amount 15 - 20 or so Harriers in service for the exclusive use off the Ark Royal, they could have done this by not doubling the money they give to poor places.
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I agree :)
 
Surely Argentina can't do anything regarding the Falklands as even if they took the island by surprise we can deploy subs with cruise missiles off their coast and batter every single military installation in Argentina and then move onto the parliament building if they don't withdraw? :p
 
Todge said:
Its a shame to see her taken out of active service but something needs to be done to sort out the finances.
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This is the excuse being bandied around, but in fact the UK is not in critical danger of going bankrupt, and has lower levels of debt than many other countries. Sure, it's a good idea to reduce the deficit, but these cuts are not required to be so harsh, and tbh I think defence expenditure should be 'ring-fenced'. I'd say a large part of the cuts is due to 'political' reasons rather than a critical need to reduce our deficit (there isn't one).

XPE said:
The good news from all this it looks like we are going back to CATOBAR and so they should be we are the only nation in the world that could build a super carrier and still use STOVL on them.
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STVOL does mean a slightly higher rate of launching planes though, but yeah, I think a CATOBAR system would be more desirable.
 
Murf said:
Surely Argentina can't do anything regarding the Falklands as even if they took the island by surprise we can deploy subs with cruise missiles off their coast and batter every single military installation in Argentina and then move onto the parliament building if they don't withdraw? :p
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Sorry we are bust we cannot afford to fire them. ;)
 
Murf said:
Surely Argentina can't do anything regarding the Falklands as even if they took the island by surprise we can deploy subs with cruise missiles off their coast and batter every single military installation in Argentina and then move onto the parliament building if they don't withdraw? :p
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Ultimately you will still need to deliver troops on to the Islands by sea, I wouldn't be overly keen on sitting in a ship with no air cover in hostile waters on my way to an opposed landing.

But Argentina's now civil government are unlikely to attack and the threat they represent has significantly dropped, they've less air power and fewer ships and soldiers than in 1982. In 1982 the belief was that we will not fight, I think they know we will now.
 
With all this talk about the Falklands, the irony is that after these cuts come into effect the Falklands will be better defend that the UK.
 
so let me get this right (correct me if wrong)

we build 6 air defence destroyers, that seem disfunctional and have woeful other purposes (bolt holes for anti ship missiles for example)

we scrap harriers

we scrap ark royal

we build first super carrier and fly heli's off it for 3 years before selling / scrapping

we build 2nd super carrier and fly non vstol F35 off it ?

what is happening to lusty ?, is she also gonna just run heli's now ?


I'm ashamed at whats happening above... what a royal *&^% up

Surely a 10 yr old could have planned this better....... like buy 10 arleigh burke destroyers, turn ark royal / lusty into a heli carrier with maybe 4 harriers (one will be scrapped). Then have one super carrier with F18s

Job done, all in active service in next few years and much much much cheaper
 
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What a mess to be honest.

I think the forces will need redrawn from the ground up after this, and we need to stay out of conflict for decades by the looks of it.
 
elmuzzy66. said:
I would buy some p-3's. How the nimrod lasted this long is crazy. A waste of money when p-3 could have been bought.
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The P-3's although far more numerous now will run into the same problem Nimrods will, that they've been out of production for years, and sourcing parts will only get harder. IMHO the RAF/MOD should have bought into the Boeing P8 Posiedon. Being based on the fuselage of a Boeing 737-800 and using the wings of a 737-900ER, aircraft that continue to roll off the production lines now and well into the future, obtaining parts would be a doddle, and training and what not would be something that we could do jointly with the US Navy.

Spending billions upgrading ever fewer, nearly 50 year old Nimrod's was a disastrously short sighted decision.
 
Can't believe how well this thread is doing! I only asked a question lol. You guys are amazing, its good to hear all of your opinions on this subject!
 
Argentina wouldn't dare invade the Falklands. There's too much money being poured into them (£200m into Rockhopper recently from various institutions) and too much oil. Good old Maggie :p

But it's fun to speculate isn't it :D
 
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