Originally Posted by Blacksheep
Thirty-odd years ago UK withdrew from East of Suez precisely because we could no longer afford to run an imaginary Empire. Meanwhile, the French withdrew even from Algeria. The idea was to cut back our armed forces to operate only in Europe and around our own shores.
Yep, that was for a little gig called the Cold War!! Our Navy was required in the North Atlantic to hunt Soviet subs. The Army was needed in Germany to meet the swarms of Soviet tanks, and the RAF was there to defend our airspace and help out the Army in Germany. Hence our armed forces operating PRIMARILY (not only) in Europe and around our own shores.
Doing the same today, however, would be a little dull and ultimately pointless.
Originally Posted by Blacksheep
Just wondering out loud why either the UK or the French need an aircraft carrier. Carriers are for global force projection.
You see, the Cold War has finished now and the wars of today are in places such as the Middle East and Kosovo. Therefore, we need platforms and weapon systems in order to project power beyond the shores of our counrty and further afield than the German plains. It is very unlikeky that our enemies will come to us now, unless its in the form of a hijacked airliner. We maintain QRA for this type of situation.
My point is that a defensive posture is not what is required these days. What is required is the ability to send our forces to where they may be needed - hence the reason to buy 2 CVFs, A400M, Tomahawks, C17, lighter armoured vehicles, new amphibious shipping, increase the size of our SF etc etc. This has been the way of things for quite a while now my dear chap - I do hope this enlightens you!
