10 Downing St Plan To Cut RAF By 50%
Foghorn,
The reason the Army is on the offensive is because they are vulnerable ... very vulnerable. People are starting to realise this and there is talk about the number of Brigades being slashed down to 3 or 4 Multi-role Brigades rather than the 9 or so regular brigades that they have at the moment.
At the very least they are likely to drop to 5 MRBs, with the odds on another couple coming off that total. If you don't have the troops to equip, then you don't need an expensive equipment plan e.g. FRES or whatever it is called this week. And unlike the RAF and the RN whose equipment plans are locked into long term contracts that cost a fortune to get out of, the Army's are done on a more fund as you go type concept where there are few if any seriously big contracts for long term equipment programmes. So they will do whatever is necessary to divert attention from these vulnerabilities. When they get down to 85-90,000, then they might be in a position to start throwing stones at the other services.
The reason the Army is on the offensive is because they are vulnerable ... very vulnerable. People are starting to realise this and there is talk about the number of Brigades being slashed down to 3 or 4 Multi-role Brigades rather than the 9 or so regular brigades that they have at the moment.
At the very least they are likely to drop to 5 MRBs, with the odds on another couple coming off that total. If you don't have the troops to equip, then you don't need an expensive equipment plan e.g. FRES or whatever it is called this week. And unlike the RAF and the RN whose equipment plans are locked into long term contracts that cost a fortune to get out of, the Army's are done on a more fund as you go type concept where there are few if any seriously big contracts for long term equipment programmes. So they will do whatever is necessary to divert attention from these vulnerabilities. When they get down to 85-90,000, then they might be in a position to start throwing stones at the other services.
More bang for your buck
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The chopping in toto of the GR4 is an Army led point. They are trying to protect themselves by suggesting other forces get binned first. This is from a trustworthy source.
More bang for your buck
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Actually the requirement for air supremacy does apply in afg.
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I just sincerely hope that it is PR11/12 nuclear option bluster or ill informed press invention. Any politician of any flavour that would countenance such an unbalanced set up should be immediately disqualified from ever holding public office. I've rarely seen anything so stupid in all my born days.
Hmmmm,
Interesting to see the howls of derision from people about Phoney Tony's post. He is quite clearly well informed.
With the UK owing about £2 Trillion pounds and in an economic situation worse than Greece only attenuated by the ability to set our own interest rates and print more money, it is hardly surprising that the CONDEMn coalition is putting pressure on the MOD.
Because of the years of underinvestment by the previous administration, previous leaders of the department who would not make the difficult decisions, political interference and what some could say, was financial incompetence by the procurement system, the MOD is now in a similar position as the PIGS (Portugal Ireland Greece Spain).
The Government gives the MOD money (ambit of the vote) and expects the MOD to deliver against the money allocated. If that means the MOD selling off some crown jewels to balance the books then 'so be it', is their attitude. Costs over and above the ambit, for efforts such as Libya are met from the reserve.
SDSR, PR11, redundancy and the allowance package reductions are only the start. People cost money and so people will have to go, along with some big projects. The MOD has been served notice by the Bailiffs. For years it has lived beyond its means and set itself off down the road of agreeing to projects it could not afford. It now has to sell the telly, the sofa, the washing machine, the cars, the ipods etc in order to keep a roof over its head.
I can only see more pain ahead. PR12, (Huge) manpower reductions, cancellation of (big) projects, (unpopular) changes to harmony rules, loss of families housing, pension changes, personnel spending more time on ops so that fewer people are needed etc. Anything that will save money will be on the table. People will leave in droves, you can see from recent media reports that it has already started.
It will unfortunately, only be another tragedy (thinking of the likes of Nimrod here. (RIP)) that will make Joe Public wake up and see the threadbare nature of what we think of as world class forces. A ship sunk, an aircraft shot down, a company overrun, will be the events that ask serious questions of where our politician's priorities lie and what the taxpayer is prepared to pay for. Tony's Afghan campaign, has, whilst I understand its aims, totally skewed where investment has gone over the last decade and has broken the MOD. The UK has many interests around the world that will be the bedrock of the UKs future wealth. It would be negligent to forget about and fail to defend those.
Sad Face!!
Interesting to see the howls of derision from people about Phoney Tony's post. He is quite clearly well informed.
With the UK owing about £2 Trillion pounds and in an economic situation worse than Greece only attenuated by the ability to set our own interest rates and print more money, it is hardly surprising that the CONDEMn coalition is putting pressure on the MOD.
Because of the years of underinvestment by the previous administration, previous leaders of the department who would not make the difficult decisions, political interference and what some could say, was financial incompetence by the procurement system, the MOD is now in a similar position as the PIGS (Portugal Ireland Greece Spain).
The Government gives the MOD money (ambit of the vote) and expects the MOD to deliver against the money allocated. If that means the MOD selling off some crown jewels to balance the books then 'so be it', is their attitude. Costs over and above the ambit, for efforts such as Libya are met from the reserve.
SDSR, PR11, redundancy and the allowance package reductions are only the start. People cost money and so people will have to go, along with some big projects. The MOD has been served notice by the Bailiffs. For years it has lived beyond its means and set itself off down the road of agreeing to projects it could not afford. It now has to sell the telly, the sofa, the washing machine, the cars, the ipods etc in order to keep a roof over its head.
I can only see more pain ahead. PR12, (Huge) manpower reductions, cancellation of (big) projects, (unpopular) changes to harmony rules, loss of families housing, pension changes, personnel spending more time on ops so that fewer people are needed etc. Anything that will save money will be on the table. People will leave in droves, you can see from recent media reports that it has already started.
It will unfortunately, only be another tragedy (thinking of the likes of Nimrod here. (RIP)) that will make Joe Public wake up and see the threadbare nature of what we think of as world class forces. A ship sunk, an aircraft shot down, a company overrun, will be the events that ask serious questions of where our politician's priorities lie and what the taxpayer is prepared to pay for. Tony's Afghan campaign, has, whilst I understand its aims, totally skewed where investment has gone over the last decade and has broken the MOD. The UK has many interests around the world that will be the bedrock of the UKs future wealth. It would be negligent to forget about and fail to defend those.
Sad Face!!
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Widger – some good points but “an economic situation worse than Greece” is a slight exaggeration (maybe that was your intent – I’m getting too old to pick up on these nuances)....
Anyway, you got me thinking: and it all depends on whether you are concerned about how much each person in your country has to work to pay off the debt or if the total debt figure is all that matters. All amounts are UK pounds sterling (data from Wolfram Alpha):
UK:
National debt: £585.3 billion
Debt per head of population: £9450
(Population 61.9 million)
Greece:
National debt: £148.5 billion
Debt per head of population: £13250
(Population 11.2 million)
Thus by inspecting the back of my yellow sticky (no cigarette packets to hand) I work out that the Greek tax payers will have to pay approx 40% more tax than their UK counterparts (ignoring employment rate variations etc). Ouch!
Anyway, you got me thinking: and it all depends on whether you are concerned about how much each person in your country has to work to pay off the debt or if the total debt figure is all that matters. All amounts are UK pounds sterling (data from Wolfram Alpha):
UK:
National debt: £585.3 billion
Debt per head of population: £9450
(Population 61.9 million)
Greece:
National debt: £148.5 billion
Debt per head of population: £13250
(Population 11.2 million)
Thus by inspecting the back of my yellow sticky (no cigarette packets to hand) I work out that the Greek tax payers will have to pay approx 40% more tax than their UK counterparts (ignoring employment rate variations etc). Ouch!
I admit I am no economist however, rather than looking at the headline figures, one should look at the projections. The UK will likely overtake Greece this year.
Furthermore, who is it that holds all those Greek government bonds? The banks! The same entities that brought us to our knees in recent past. Our pensions, savings, GDP is all tied up in the banks. You only have to see the way the markets are getting jittery to see how vulnerable we all are. We make very little any more, a significant portion of our wealth(=debt) is linked to our financial institutions. I would therefore argue, that we are in greater danger than Greece who have the rest of the Eurozone to bail them out or they can withdraw from the Euro and devalue. We have no such course of action apart from going to the IMF!
Anyway.....thread-drift....my profound apologies!
Furthermore, who is it that holds all those Greek government bonds? The banks! The same entities that brought us to our knees in recent past. Our pensions, savings, GDP is all tied up in the banks. You only have to see the way the markets are getting jittery to see how vulnerable we all are. We make very little any more, a significant portion of our wealth(=debt) is linked to our financial institutions. I would therefore argue, that we are in greater danger than Greece who have the rest of the Eurozone to bail them out or they can withdraw from the Euro and devalue. We have no such course of action apart from going to the IMF!
Anyway.....thread-drift....my profound apologies!
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"only 2 frontline sqns fully trained for ops" .........
Has someone fogotten about the SH force, or are we no longer part of the RAF! Reporting like that really P*sses me off
Has someone fogotten about the SH force, or are we no longer part of the RAF! Reporting like that really P*sses me off
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
I would therefore argue, that we are in greater danger than Greece who have the rest of the Eurozone to bail them out or they can withdraw from the Euro and devalue. We have no such course of action apart from going to the IMF!
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Widger
"they can withdraw from the Euro and devalue. We have no such course of action apart from going to the IMF!"
Erm, yes we can. That is the main advantage of not being in the Euro. we can devalue at will.
We have many financial problems, but there is a reason we still have a AAA credit rating, and it is that we are not in major economic trouble. This the reason why the Military cuts are treasonous in my book.
If we were in the position of Greece, I would suggest that the military cuts were justifiable.
Do you want to borrow my "Penguin book of Economics" before you embarass yourself further?
Nice chap called Adam Smith wrote another one with grown up words that you can get your mum to read to you.
"they can withdraw from the Euro and devalue. We have no such course of action apart from going to the IMF!"
Erm, yes we can. That is the main advantage of not being in the Euro. we can devalue at will.
We have many financial problems, but there is a reason we still have a AAA credit rating, and it is that we are not in major economic trouble. This the reason why the Military cuts are treasonous in my book.
If we were in the position of Greece, I would suggest that the military cuts were justifiable.
Do you want to borrow my "Penguin book of Economics" before you embarass yourself further?
Nice chap called Adam Smith wrote another one with grown up words that you can get your mum to read to you.
Tourist,
Now now, just because Andy Murray is not doing too well there is no need to take it out of me..........be civil!
On to the subject of our credit rating then as we have clearly drifted this thread. The UK's credit rating is provided by the likes of Standard and Poors, the very bodies who failed to predict the collapse of the banking system and thought investing in Iceland was a good idea!
I refer the honorable gentlemen to some posts I made some years ago on Jet Blast,
http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/1921...ml#post2395886
http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/1756...ml#post1904320
Now now, just because Andy Murray is not doing too well there is no need to take it out of me..........be civil!
On to the subject of our credit rating then as we have clearly drifted this thread. The UK's credit rating is provided by the likes of Standard and Poors, the very bodies who failed to predict the collapse of the banking system and thought investing in Iceland was a good idea!
I refer the honorable gentlemen to some posts I made some years ago on Jet Blast,
http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/1921...ml#post2395886
http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/1756...ml#post1904320
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Wizard,
I don't think either of us thought there would be an occasion when my sole reason for logging on would be to agree with you - but hey, sh1t happens.
JHC - RAF, gone and long forgotten [unless they need some jazzy front-line pictures]
MGD
I don't think either of us thought there would be an occasion when my sole reason for logging on would be to agree with you - but hey, sh1t happens.
JHC - RAF, gone and long forgotten [unless they need some jazzy front-line pictures]
MGD
