Originally Posted by
RileyDove
Threat from who exactly ! Well look at all the Manpads that disappeared south from Libya and you will easily see that Africa is the next battlefield !
Just wait to when shipping starts to get threatened off Africa's other coasts and the utility of a P-8 will quickly come to the fore!
Manpads need targets. Apart from having a very small number of targets, do we have the political will to intervene? What exactly are our national interests apart from Libyan and Nigerian oil?
And the P8 would be based where exactly? To do what that is not already being done?
UK Armed Forces plc is sort of managing without MPA but will soon have a RN with a power projection capability by which time our forces will be nicely rebalanced, the MOD budget in credit, and all required equipment projects delivered on time in budget.