Mopardave and Etudiant
Aside from the US, who are always going to dwarf us, our allies will mostly still look at us as a strong nation.
Our constant operational commitments over the last few decades and highly competent performances on various exercises mean we still acquit ourselves well.
As a couple of examples, I know Canadians and Omanis who all view our Air Force with awe. Aside from Germany (their military is not in a good way) and France who else in Europe has much to offer?
Aircraft are expensive and nobody has a bottomless pot of cash (apart from Qatar maybe!).
I will grant that there are a couple of nations that we deem to be allies that have huge militaries (India and Saudi spring to mind) but they still hold us in very high regard.
Etudiant.
Are we really going to say that China are an ally? That was the question after all.
If say that even if we’d made no military cuts for the last 40 years we still wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with them on our own.
Cuts are never good news and if you’re on one of the fleets for whom the axe is due to fall I know this won’t feel good. We can’t stand still though.
BV
Last edited by Bob Viking; 23rd Mar 2021 at 06:31.