Illustrious to the Med.
 

Time to get Illustrious down to the Med c/w Apache attack helicopters. They could sort out Assads tanks - OK I know there's a UN cease fire in place -but tell that to the dead of Houla.

On paper at least it looks like the Syrian military have sufficient capacity to see off a dozen Apache fairly easily.

Sending a gunboat to sort out Johnny Foreigner is no longer an option for the UK.

They could sort out the Spanish fishing boats fishing illegally, while cruising past Gib. :E

The Syrian Air Defense Force, according to unclassified sources, has more personnel than the RAF. And that's just to manage their anti-air stuff. More SA-6/8/10/11/22 than you can shake a stick at, it seems.

I doubt a carrier with a handful of helicopters would get very far without an awful lot of advanced SEAD/DEAD/EW support, to be honest. Have we got that...?

In theory yes. In practice, as 5F6B suggested, I doubt they would even get feet dry.

As much as it pains me to say it, this is something the Arab world has to sort out on its own. Unlike in Egypt, Tunisia where Libya there was a wholesale rejection of their respective Regimes by all elements of society, Assad still has a sizeable following - enough to make it questionable as to whether unilateral 'western' intervention would be legitimate.

Plus, to get anything through the UNSC, you would need to get Russia onside. Certainly in the short term, that isn't going to happen. The Russians feel completely betrayed by UN / NATO action in Libya, arguing that Russia offered its support to a limited humanitarian piece but ended up being bounced into backing a campaign of regime change. Putin isn't going to fall for that one again, so any UNSC resolution would either be vetoed outright by Russia, likely supported by China (who needs Russian moral support to keep the North Koreans in check). At best, you would end up with a resolution where 2 of the 5 P5, if they didn't veto it, would abstain - again bringing into question the legitimacy of the resolution.

It really is time for the Arab world to step up to the mark and sort their own house out rather than waiting for the west to come and do it for them. Then again, it is ironic that I say that as a Brit, as that is pretty much exactly what is being said about Eurpore amongst some sections of the US political and military deciison makers.

You must remember, we only pick fights with those who have a limited fight back capability and will only get involved if there is OIL