Quote:
Originally Posted by JMH
The British Government has decided that France is going to be the dominate EU Naval power in the new Socialist Europe. This makes the Royal Navy redundant and unnecessary. Also, eliminating the Royal Navy would go a long way in eliminating National Pride and Nationalism in the UK, which is the precusar to forming a single Socialist European Nation. First break down national currency, national identity, national pride and nationalism and than no one will care about national sovereignty anymore. Since the days of defeat of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel, England, Great Britain than the UK has always been identified as a Naval Power, which is precisely why the UK Labour (Socialist) Government wants to eliminate the Royal Navy.
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lordy, you do keep beating this drum, but you have absolutely no real insight into the reasons for the drawdown. Probably said all this before, but here goes...
1)
Procurement pileups By sheer incompetence (rather than malice) and happenstance, the MoD managed to have a number of massive procurement projects all due at mature roughly the same time. For eg, Typhoon, T45, Astute, Meteor, CVF. FRES, Bowman, FSTA etc. This was hugely unaffordably expensive.
2)
Cold War The Cold War ended just as the production of the T23 ASW frigates was about to commence. These cheap, effective, single-purpose vessels continued to be built. The Tory govt (in Options for Change) kept producing the T23's, when there was no real need for them. Quite simply, as good as they are, they are too small to be truly multi-role combatants. T22B3 (Cornwall et al) are better in that role but not truly suited to the jobs that they do.
3)
Afghanistan/Iraq Due to GB's penny-pinching, much of the cost of the war in Iraq has been sourced of O&M budgets. The service least involved in these conflicts (and therefore most vulnerable) - the RN.
4)
Procurement Cost Overruns Typhoon. And T45. Bad decision making that crosses both Labour and Tory governments.
5)
Apathy Britain could spend billions on defence with ease. The general public do not want to (much as I might disagree). Rightly or wrongly, they want the money spent on Health, Education etc. No political party is advocating massive rises in the defense budget.
While I hate seeing the drawdown of the RN - in a twisted way it makes sense in the short-term, especially if it allows CVF to be built.
In the longer-term, we need smaller OPV vessels capable of littoral ops to make up the numbers in the fleet - T42's (or T45's) conducting WHIGs ops is a nonsense. There is simply no need for bleeding-edge, state of the art in many of the RN's most common roles. The RN needs to be designed around 2 CSGs and 1 ESG (to use US parlance). It needs to have sufficient, high-level escorts for that role (T45 and Sonar 2087 equiped T23's for the forseeable future) plus SSNs. The RN needs the MARS program (replenishment ships) to be completed.
It doesnt really
need as opposed to
would like 25 top-line escort vessels - the threats do not exist currently at that level. The "cheaper" OPVs need to be modular, and large enough to be upgraded should threat levels change.
If we can see a realistic RN restructuring on these lines, then perhaps the pain will be worth it.
Of course, I would like to see 3 CATOBAR CVFs, 12 Darings, 20 FSC, 30 Global Corvettes, 12 Astutes etc... and if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. We must be realistic in our expectations - while not excusing Labour incompetence and indifference to the RN.