>>Suit wrote>>Whilst yet ANOTHER review is hard to swallow, it is equally hard to deny that in the light of recent events it is fully justified.
Why when we say REVIEW do we think CUTS? It is a trend that has been with us since the end of the Cold War, in that sense I agree with Suit.
>>Suit wrote>>But more FJ's, why? They are hardly relevant in a theatre like Afghanistan, certainly not in numbers greater than we have now. How are we going to use more than we have, will we ever NEED to mount a Granby sized operation again?
A reactive defence will always remain defensive. We need to be prepared, not hang around the international corners with trousers around our ankles. It is opinions like this that will condemn us further from superpower status, and therefore puppets thoughout future conflicts. What would you have said with hind sight in August 1990?
>>Suit wrote>>Strengthen UK AD, why? All the F3's and Typhoons in the world wouldn't have helped us on Sept 11th if the threat had been coming our way. A fully tooled up AD aircraft is helples against a suitcase bomb or a ballistic missile, and they are what we should be worrying about.
Then intel is the way ahead unless we radically change freedom rights in the UK, that is not my bag, I would leave discussions like that to the tree-huggers. Please Suit, tell me that others in your apparent position can see beyond thier own nose, you would be a great guy to have around - the day AFTER a military decision needed to be made.
>>Suit wrote>>We currently spend 2.5% of the our GDP on defence, that's £23 Billion this year and a further increase has been announced taking it to £25Billion by 2003/4.
That's a greater per cent of GDP than the NATO average and of a GDP significantly greater than in this nations history.
BUT IT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH!!!
>>Suit wrote>>Apart from the terrorist threat there is NO other real world threat to the UK, we are less at risk now than at any time since the late 19th Century.
You are not wrong, TODAY. Do I need to go on about being prepared? I was never a Boy Scout but it makes sense.
Disclaimer: I will never be a suit making big decisions, nor will I make a high profile military strategist. (Analogy time)I belond at the coalface for the time-being, and I can only speak my tiny mind from the clutches of that coal face. I DO know that we do not have enough tools, enough people and the coal face is getting bigger. Also those on the surface are making decisions on the premise of a geologist armed only with barometer and a slide rule.
