Military cutbacks

[Deleted member 15344]

Since Mr Cameron took over ruining ( sorry running ) the country our military has been slashed year by year in terms if equipment , personnel and budget to save money.

Most people in the military I'm going it guess are not particularly happy with the mass amount of cutbacks - we have lost the Harrier , multitude amount of Navy Ships and countless regiments - to the point where the Military is now extremely stretched thin and I believe would struggle to defend the country against an serious opposition

Now whilst we have been reducing our military our big neighbours the Russians have been advancing theirs - increasing the technology as well as the size of all the three forces. They are getting close to Cold War size again. In the past couple of years they have tested the reaction of the RAF by flying in our airspace meaning Typhoons have been scrambled and now they are starting to sail close and into our waters.

Below is an article about the latest incident from them and it has highlighted our big problem ( apologies for it being from the Daily Hate )

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tsmouth-base-Putin-testing-response-time.html

Soon there is going to be more cuts ( when the withdrawal from Afghan is complete ) and our forces are going be very thin on the ground and we could be very venerable - scary situation ahead IMO

 

[Wildrover]

Couldn't agree more Phil, I was in the RN for 23 years and would not want to be joining up now, the commitments remain the same or even increase but the personnel and equipment to do them get less and less. Wages have been frozen and pensions altered but they still have to cover for bleating firemen who won't accept the same. Unfortunately defence spending is not a vote winner, you see headlines all the time about how much the new carriers, Trident replacement, Typhoon etc cost but in reality it is a fraction of what we spend on the welfare state. The average civvie has no idea how much time you spend away from home in the forces and the work that they do. Of course the above only applies to the RN and The Army as we all know the RAF are just civvies in a uniform anyway.

 

[Slab]

I think we’re looking at two points here, the wider issue of military cuts and this instance of a foreign warship being close to UK waters

I don’t know enough to comment on the former but from what I’ve read on the latter (if true) is that it was taking shelter due to the stormy weather (easy to say I know)

It’s suggested on online comments that this ship or one like it is no stranger to UK ports and recently took part in fleet exercises with UK ships

Anyway rather than go through the confrontation the press (or just DM really) reported, I’d have invited them to full protection from the weather and docked them at Inverness with a customs team popping on board for routine inspection etc etc while inviting them to a New Year’s bash... its maybe naive but I didn’t know we were at any kind of threat level from Russia!

 

[MegaSteve]

Russia has greater concerns than us much nearer to home....

 

[cleanstrike]

We haven't got a fleet any more and every one knows it but the Russkies probably just decided to put it beyond doubt. Hope the Argies don't find out though ... then it'll really become embarrassing.