How to destroy the Royal Air Force (?).
 

‪How to destroy the Royal Air Force.‬

‪https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2020/07/29/a-guide-to-destroying-the-royal-air-force/‬

Hi Al, hope all is well with you. ;)

As to the article :-

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax.../#4e4bf5fe3ee9

I'm tempted to say that the MOD needs no lessons in that, thank you! :(

I’m good thanks matey, hope you both are as well. 👍

Shhhh
Keep it a secret - oh?

Indeed, a good point! Our aircraft should be much more dispersed around the Country. The phrase keeping all your eggs in one basket comes to mind. Reopen RAF Wattisham and RAF Lyneham for starters...

All the Apache eggs are already in the Wattisham basket :E

And the Carriers and the erm fleet for what it is at Portsmouth. Couple all this with a strike on Sunday morning during church to take out the senior officers should do it, drop one on Brize would also rob the UK of the ability to move anything. A farce in the making.

As was pointed out on my Facebook page - we responded by ridding ourselves of all ground based missile defence when the Cold War was won and our enemies couldn’t even fly a kite - let alone host a hypersonic first strike capability.

Let me think.... oh yeah.... it's totally not possible having military aircraft operating out of civilian fields and roads.

Sorry RAF, you're doomed.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....56308101b8.gif

A good case could be made that the RAF ceased to be a force a long time ago, unable to prosecute a genuine war but just about able to manage peacetime activities such as exercises and patrolling UK airspace against infiltration by Russian aircraft. It could also manage a bit of bomb dropping on tribesmen and insurgents provided there was no credible opposition.

I long ago came to the conclusion that the Defence budget existed primarily to support industry (see Aircraft carriers, Typhoon etc) and that the RAF (and presumably by extension the other 2 services) existed to give people a good career (see the proliferation of jobs for senior officers despite the ever reducing capabilities of the front line).

If along the way the RAF could move a load of pax/ freight from A to B or drop a bomb on C, that was considered something of a bonus.

I thought that fight had almost concluded, from within.

OOT Post 5: Lyneham is now a solar panel farm!

Yeah I know, but the swedes do it.....

https://www.blogbeforeflight.net/202...n-highway.html

Not to mention all the other capabilities we've killed off too, short/medium range SAM, ADGE Radar coverage, Tankers, the list could go on and on.......

When the Wall came down in 89, I was working in the City. I remember one of the defence analysts saying that he wouldn't fancy a career in the services now as the main reason the services in their then form existed, had itself ceased to exist.
Today we cannot stop so far this year, 3,000 illegals crossing the channel.

I was always at a loss to understand the military logic of reducing the airfield infrastructure and cramming what little was left onto just three air bases. As all I'm sure have concluded, successive British Governments have invariably refused to let go of 1989 and the post cold war peace dividend. The same problem persists to varying degrees among all western democracies. However, the British establishment have a very special knack for arguing the case against its defence posture. Does any other nation have on going debates forcing their air force to justify its existence?

FB

I might be missing something here, but surely this is why the UK has Trident. No mention of that in the article.

Trident??

So if we had a minor conventional skirmish with pro-Russia or Russian forces on the fringe of Europe that lead to a small but precise retaliation of conventional cruise missiles against 2 or 3 RAF bases you would suggest reaching for thermonuclear weapons?

The threat of a small-scale, limited but precise conventional attack by stand-off weapons is a credible threat because of the increased likelihood of the use of such a tactic. Indeed, it is one we have exercised ourselves a number of times in various conflicts post-1990.