Cutbacks, the Silver Lining

[roush]

VinRouge Wrote:

Not so sure a cut in current capabilities is what we need, especially as we need to be preparing for tomorrows war and not today’s distraction.

So far this distraction has killed 239 of our comrades, more than in Iraq, nearly as many as in the Falklands.
Coalition deaths in Afghanistan by country (from BBC website)
USA: 864*
UK: 239
Canada: 132*
Germany: 40
France: 36
Denmark: 30
Spain: 26
Italy: 22
Netherlands: 21
Poland: 15
Australia: 11
Romania: 11
Estonia: 7
Norway: 4
Czech Republic: 3
Latvia: 3
Hungary: 2
Portugal: 2
South Korea: 2
Sweden: 2
Turkey: 2
Belgium: 1
Finland: 1
Lithuania: 1
TOTAL: 1,477

I agree, quite distracting and likely to continue to be a distraction for many more years.

manxcat Wrote:

I know this will not be all light-blue but it will feel like a kick in the teeth for all AFCO recruiters who were beaten with the '4559' stick.

Ah bless, all those Capt Darlings feeling unloved .

I'm obviously in the minority here as, not withstanding the issues raised by Melchett01, I think this is a good direction to be going in. MR2 is broken, MRA4 will not have a capability for the Afghan campaign. In my opinion ISTAR is the key in the C-IED. Comms, armour and helo's are what’s needed as loads and loads of posts on this website have been saying for years. To remain relevant the RAF needs to be able to support the SF and greens and make an impact in trying to reduce the threats that they are facing.

We are not the USAF, we don't have the cash or people to develop everything. Of course we need Maritime, Strike, Helo's, AT, ISTAR etc, and have industry working on the future to all of these, but we are skint.