Si vis pacem, para bellum

[caddyman]

At  11.00am GMT the Royal Navy ceases to be a credible force with the decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal, robbing the service of its capability to launch fixed wing aircraft for the remainder of the decade at least.

This leaves the senior service with a few destroyers and frigates and precious little else other than the Trident force, which frankly, we will never need.

Cameron's coalition government has cut further, deeper and more definitively than any previous administration, seriously compromising the Navy's ability to fulfill its function.


Royal Navy c.900AD - 2011AD

Comments

[delvy.livejournal.com]

There was not a defence review, there was a defence destruction. Perhaps someone should look at the command structure for some savings. More Admirals than there are warships when those same warships are commanded by officers 3 ranks below that of the 33 Rear-Admirals, mostly based in Whitehall? As Private Eye would say "Shurely shome mishtake?"

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

You're a regular ray of sunshine at the mo...

[smokingboot.livejournal.com]

Not shooting people because you won't = good.
Not shooting people because you can't = bad.
There's no peace without the power to defend it. Nature of the Beast.

[keith-london.livejournal.com]

IMHO, we are saddled with an over-generous welfare benefits system - which seems impossible to tame, and often subject to abuse. Otherwise, I'm sure we could well afford to keep the Royal Ark going until 2016 (which it was designed to do). There's talk that the ship could be turned into a helipad in Docklands.

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

If this government had been quicker to scrap things or the crisis in the middle east had been a bit later then the no fly zones would not have been possible because the Nimrods would have been scrap metal. This cost cutting exercise has cost us lots.

oh and when I first read your post I read "trident forks" and wanted one please.

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Wow, an end of an era. I'm surprised they let it be decommisioned, especially since if it wasn't for air power things like the Falklands would have come out much differently.

[boredinsomniac.livejournal.com]

And you KNOW France has just been biding their time, playing nice. They've got a score to settle.