I thought the screaming was coming from the Right Hand Seat...

"Power, Attitude, Trim, R/T, lookout, think wind, too high, I miss my E3, C'mon Bloggs where's my coffee?"

FJJP,

The Soviet style "everything is a military secret" approach never washed here and there has to be a balance. The press and public expect to be told a certain amount, and our system presupposes having an informed electorate. Without information, public consent would be lacking, and even recruitment would suffer.

And I think that giving people details of the numbers of platforms procured and in service, broad capabilities, and uncovering procurement policies and cock-ups while remaining tight lipped about tactics and the detailed parametrics of weapons or details of ongoing operations is about the right compromise.

Of course the enemy's task would be made more difficult if we hid the fact that we operated the Vickers Funbus at all, but that ain't going to happen. Nor did it happen in the 40s, when we published details about the Spit and the Blenheim, even though we knew Herman was looking.

Deployment of assets
 

Jacko,

I agree to a certain extent that Joe Public has a right to know where his/her tax-pounds are being spent, and equally to know when there have been c*ck-ups of monumental proportions. Surely there are more appropriate ways than this forum of eliciting that information, (Parliamentary questions is but one method that comes to mind...)

Force deployment numbers, however, are an entirely different matter........does Abdul & co. let us know where the SAM/RPG etc. threat is deployed, and in what numbers?

...No, didn't think so, so let's not give him any info that may be of use to him, however innoccuous (sp?) the request on this forum may seem. :ok: