Party Animal,
You of course are perfectly entitled to your opinion, and what you would like to see in the UK military, unfortunately when it comes to long range Maritime Patrol Aircraft, it would appear that the top brass in both the RAF and the RN disagree with you.
If they did agree with you, then I’m pretty sure that, out of the £63 billion allotted to defence purchases over the next 10 yrs ,plus another £13 billion for contingency purchases, they would have found the money!
I would imagine that we would cope a lot better this time around with an Argentine invasion (unlikely as that is) of the Falkands than we did in 1982!
As to you finding it personally appalling as regards our 90% of maritime trade, seeing as that comes in 100% foreign ships mainly owned and crewed by foreigners then I don’t see that the lack of a LRMPA increases our vulnerability one jot.
Easy Street,
Sorry if you think my points ‘cheap shots.’ I personally think that a Barrister possesses as much intellect as your average Taxi driver, and believe me I have NO beef against Taxi drivers!
Believe me when I say that I do not consider myself to inhabit any lofty perch.
As to scaling the armed forces according to the needs of current operations, where on earth did I suggest that? Less than 15% of the UK armed forces were deployed to Afghanistan and we have myriad capabilities and platforms that have not been deployed for a very long time, I am NOT suggesting that they be retired.
Roland Pulfrew,
You make a fair point re the 4,000. That was sloppy of me and of course does not take into account the other small scatterings in the Falklands, the Gulf, Kosovo and sundry other places. however, my main point remains, that we have only one significant combat deployment, of 4,000, and that comes to an end this year.
I still maintain that the UK armed forces CAN do their job, and seeing as we possess the 4th largest defence budget on the face of the planet, so they bloody well should! Is that money well spent? Is it well managed and husbanded? No, I don’t think it is but that is NO reason to spend more!