Originally Posted by
Asturias56
"You only have to scratch the surface of what would happen to UK Armed Forces to see that the SNP position is completely untenable. "
Not to them - they don't want the sort of armed services that London wants , they don't want to be a major defense player in NATO or elsewhere.
They genuinely want to be like Denmark -"Defence" as we've known it for 120 years is not what they want
Like Denmark, really? It's going to be very expensive upscaling from the 2013 offer as I believe Denmark currently fields;
9 Frigates, 3 Ocean Patrol Vessels, 40+ Patrol Boats et al. 9 Seahawks
27 F35-As (replacing 30+ F-16s), 4 CL-604s swapable between VIP and ISTAR , 8 Light Helos, 14 Medium lift Helos, 27 Basic Trainers, 4 C-130Js, 2 MQ-9, 2 x AN/TPS 77,
Army of 7000-9000 trained professional soldiers plus 4200 consripts in basic training - (all males liable for conscription but most are volunteers) plus reservists 444 Leopard MBTs, 400+ AFVs, 19 Self Propelled Guns etc.
Seriously though I think the problem would be the remaining UK's if the SNP insisted on a reduced presence of the RAF and threw out all the Sunshine Dodgers, not just the Bombers, where are they all going to go? The Navy has a reduced footprint in both Guz and Pompey, the SSNs could, I suppose, go back to Guz but it is far from ideal forthe Bombers. What are the unbuilt un-sold off airfield options Leeming? Wattisham?
BAE Systems and Babcock are not going to ditch their investments, so Naval shipbuilding will remain where it is.