Originally Posted by
Pontius Navigator
In the cold light of day it is probably not madness.
Back in the day the mission was to defend the nuclear deterrent. After 1982 it continued more out of habit. 26 years after the cold war things have changed out of all recognition. Russian conventional forces are not capable of a massive air assault on UK and at the same time the number of military target has reducecd greatly.
OTOH the political threat of nuclear attack is very real and our defence wholly on counter attack.
PN,
If I were playing Devil's advocate I'd say your comment on Russian conventional forces applies equally to us, but we are still taken seriously. It doesn't need a massive air assault, just a couple of ALCMs launched from miles off the coast but inside the UKADR on to key targets and there's probably not much that could be done about it. Can you imagine the headlines as the armchair Air Marshals with their encyclopaedic grasp of military matters if the likes of Boulmer was closed? Degraded Air Defences, an insult to the Few etc etc, regardless of the reality.