UK 'must slash defence spending'

Looks like herr brown is already trying to cut the new QE Class.

I'm starting to lean towards dumping the SLBM's and just refitting the Tomahawk with small warheads.

Would be a damn sight cheaper then replacing the whole trident system and it would save the navy around £2 billion a year that could be used for keeping the fleet at sea (Fuel..they had to tie up ships because they couldn't afford to run them)

Bah, can it all.

Its not like the Brits are going to war anytime soon.

Great Britain is a small island nation. What the bloomin' 'ell do they need a bloody Navy for?

So they don't have to borrow ships from the rest of the Commonwealth if some spics decide THEY want to fuck some sheep themselves?







Seriously though, why wasn't the UK able to use NATO in the Faulklands? Is it technically a possession and there something in the treaty about possessions not counting?

Remember when the Falklands war happened. The big bad bear was still big and bad, and NATO was thought of as strictly a European thing . . . defending the Fulda Gap from all those tanks and shit Ivan had ready to go. Deploying NATO forces outside of Europe is a relatively new idea, and driven largely by the aftermath of 9-11. Hell, it was a big deal to get NATO involved in the Balkans when the Serbs were running amok, and that's Europe's freakin' back yard.

It's not like we're talking about Bolivia or Chad...

Sarcasm, preacher.

Marso, sarcasm? Say it ain't so!

NORTH Atlantic Treaty Organization.

NORTH.

Now look where the Falklands are...

My favorite thing about the Falklands war was the Vulcan bomber mission. Flying 8,000 miles with multiple refuelings to manage to get ONE fucking bomb on a runway, that the Argentines had fixed in an hour.

The Brit CEP hasn't improved since 1944.

Great Britain's military, especially the Royal Navy, have been teetering on the brink for a while. Not only are their new Carriers in danger of not coming to fruition, two of their destroyers have deployed without their Sea Dart AA missiles to save money, The RAF doesn't exactly have a large amount of aircraft at it's disposal, the Sea Harrier has been withdrawn and replaced by the Harrier GR7a and GR9(50% of which are flown by RAF pilots!) because it's replacement, the F-35A has yet to be produced......hell, even their new Type 45 air defence destroyers are going to deploy without having tested their air defense suite(which won't be operational until 2011)! This war for military funding has been going on since the "1966 Defense White Paper", and unless England's economy takes a dramatic upswing, I don't see her military getting any stronger.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1025299/HMS-Defenceless-Two-destroyers-sail-minus-missiles-save-cash.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2006/03/28/205735/hover-and-out-uk-royal-navy-retires-the-sea-harrier.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6563456.ece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Defence_White_Paper

Before long the RN will be reduced to three row boats and 2 canoes. Not much left to cut.

I wish I'd boughten the T-shirt with a map of the UK, with a Union Jack overlaid on it, and the caption "Were #1".

Good.

Are they going to welch on the F-35?

Fuck off.

Hippies like you would be the first to scream like babies if, god forbid, we were ever attacked for any reason.

Absolutely.
We are broke.
The creation of the social democratic paradise has caused this government to run up more debt in twelve years than all previous governments combined going back to 1690.

So you don't believe in the principle of a military deterrent, even though you've lived under one all your life?

Yes, that's all it was.
Nothing to do with a vastly inflated welfare state and public sector.
Nor committing future governments to insane environmental policies.
Cock.

So a Trident nuclear sub has no place in modern warfare?

They where forced to withdraw all there strike fighters to the mainland after those missions and that was the whole point of the blackbuck raids.

So shut the fuck up with your little snide remarks.

It's not 20bil each that's for the whole project.

Such as?