Levels of Military Equipment - UK & ISRAEL

[A2QFI]

I know that the Israelis must spend a much larger percentage of their GNP on their Defence Forces than we do and that they have a very different role on the World stage but, even bearing that in mind they have

125,000 soldiers + 500,000 reservists
3650 tanks
10400 APCs
620 SP guns
400+ aircraft including
200 F15 and F16
175 GA AIRCRAFT
95 attack helicopters
does anybody think that we are appropriately and fully equipped for the roles that our Forces are called upon to perform worldwide?

[Pontius Navigator]

Originally Posted by A2QFI

they have a very different role on the World stage but?

Their economy would appear to be in their navy.

They are also tooled up for a war of anhilation. In the cold war we were also facing a war of anhilation but could only afford to arm for a war of deterrence.

Currently reading a book on Confrontation. Reinforcing Malaysia left such holes in NATO and CENTO that SACEUR and Cento were protesting at the removal of their assets.

Deterrence is usually cheaper than actual war. The FI is a recent example. UK Forces in the Gulf in the '60s is possibly another. The peacetime deployments are always totally inadequate to fight but are usually enough of a signal of political resolve.

Once you start to move from this modern gunboat diplomacy to actual boots on the ground then you get the situation as existed in Malaysia where other theatres lost assets that were possibly critical to deterrence.

It might be argued that we have no need for deterrent deployment now, such as FI or NI, so we can use all our 'spare' peacetime forces on other roles.

And a possible answer? Certainly we need to rebalance (lovely word) our forces with more MRT and SH and boots. But that is today's problem. If we are to be ready for a different balancing act with amphib sea lift etc etc. One can certainly see the attractions of trying to mobilise NATO to get a larger set of scales but the bottom line is we are one of the few countries that will always fill any gap any where any time.

So, we need more and we need it now even if we do keep it in stores.

[A and C]

The short answer is that the UK forces are badly under equiped but the bottom line is that there is not the political will to raise any more tax to pay for defence.

Any goverment that said they would increase taxation for any reason will not get elected, at the last election one political party wanted to increase taxation to pay for more education, a more "PC" cause I cant think of and this did not seem to get them any more votes.

Defence comes far below any other thing in the minds of most of the people of the UK and so any goverment will be unlikely to increase defence spending for fear of the political fallout.

[Pontius Navigator]

Talking of PC and the Israeli COS. Did anyone note the quote attributed to him?

"Why did you drop a 2000lb bomb on that house when you knew it would kill 15 men women and children?"

"We would have needed two 1000lb bombs."

[BANANASBANANAS]

COS Quote

I prefer his response to the question:

Q. "Just how far is Israel prepared to go to neutralise the threat of terrorism to its borders?"

A. "About 2000kms!"