Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
I don't know if this point has been raised before, but why now? Why after all these decades of the Cold War and the three decades since which has seen Russia, for example, become a far less significant military threat, to albeit becoming one again, why is Ireland concerned about fielding a standing force of Fighter aircraft now?
FB
I think the ‘why now’ is the realisation that there’s more to Defence than the land component! Things have , understandably, always been very focused on domestic security in the past which more or less meant Army units with small standing detachments of Allouete IIIs. The other main focus for decades was on wherever the deployed overseas Bn of the day was.
What you see now is the public attention starting on the issues surrounding pay, conditions and retention, and the discussion evolving from there.
You also now have a much wider online access to decision makers, which further socialises the idea ( I hate that term, but there you go...). As a last point, whereas previously politicians would have seen ‘there’s no votes in Defence’, there’s now an ex ARW commandant in the Dail.
TL/DR, lots of bits of different things mean nows a good time to at least bring it up.