UK to retire Harrier force.

According to the latest press release by the UKNDA, the British MoD is considering scraping the Joint Harrier Force in an affort to fill the £2Bn hole in its budget. This will leave the RN without any fixed wing assets and raise questions as to the viability of the CVF programme. How will the RN train and retain the numbers of pilots required for the JSF fleet? Will the two remaining CVLs be retired early as well? Will the JSF purchase survive?

There seems to be no long term planning at all these days by the Government or MoD. Senior Mod Cheif are living in cloud Cookoo land, as shown by the DG DE&S who stated to the House of Commons Select Committee on Defence that he didn’t believe there was a major shortfall in the MoD’s budget and that there was sufficient funding to meet needs! Well yes being subjective he is right depending on how you quantify needs. He stated that the MoD was planning for the future naming the Typhoon as an example, yet the MoD is already trying to sell off its 50 or so Tranche 1 planes, Oman being one possible customer.

What is it going to take to make people realise the true state of our armed forces and the damage that has been done, especially over the last ten years.