A missile strike is a bit more direct than putin likes. He likes the idea of misdirection blaming. The nerve agent attacks he blamed on rogue elements.
I mean he's been doing that for years, just not in the direct military sense. He's had great success when it comes to undermining the democratic process and getting NATO members eating themselves. I don't see that stopping anytime soon as much like Russian money it serves some peoples interests.
Presumably, this is an attempt to shift the needle in public discourse on the military. There was a bit of an uptick in support of the armed forces in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine but since then it's back to ''more money for the NHS/Education etc''. Not unworthy causes to be sure but the peace dividend that Europe and ourselves have had for the last 30 years has put us into this situation where we are not a credible force. I understand that as part of the 2010 spending review, the cost of the nuclear deterrent was moved from the treasury to the MOD budget which is effectively a cut in of itself even before you get to austerity cuts ontop of that.
Politicians will largely follow public opinion, if the voters don't care it won't get any attention. Imo if the public won't support increased military spending (and therefore cuts to other areas/increased borrowing/increased taxes) then we should get rid of the nuclear deterrent and spend that cash on conventional forces. What we have been doing for the last 30 years cannot continue.
“There are currently 30 Tranche 1 aircraft on the military register of which 26 will leave service by the end of March 2025.”
UK confirms plans to strip early Typhoon jets for parts
The retirement of the Tranche 1 Typhoons will leave the Royal Air Force with just 107 Typhoon aircraft in total – 67 Tranche 2 jets and 40 Tranche 3 jets.ukdefencejournal.org.uk
Where is the order for a 1:1 replacement? The 6th gen GCAP/Tempest is over a decade away, and the F35 acquisition is slow due to us not wanting to pay to upgrade older planes to the block 4 standard that is due in 2029. Lets just hope nothing kicks off between now and then!
This is nonsense.
Well, technically it was 4-years ago, but hey, who's counting right?
Still effecting our lives 8 years on.
..... and will no doubt effect it for many years to come, Brexiteers go-on like it was some historic loss in a football game or cup final that you just brush off and get over, it's literally something to this day that is affecting the UK in a whole, to include the gammons who flap their chops about "boat people" as Brexit pulled us out of the Dublin Agreement and Regulations, meaning that when we "took back control of our borders" we also then took full responsibility of anyone entering them, talk about shooting yourself in the foot, I'd laugh if it wasn't a total $hit show, lets not forget "Oven ready"
Go cry me a river, who would want to defend the UK right now and the people running it? This isn't the 1940's anymore, most of our Grandfathers fought to avoid this type of thing ever happening again, so I doubt they'd be ashamed, I find it more despicable that you think you can speak for them.
I thought the point of our grandfathers fighting in wars was to avoid the need for future generations to do the same?
