But its 22 days until April 1st 😀

For a class of plane that is about to retire it still seems to be pretty busy !! The RAF have gotten great value from their Canberra’s over the years.

Does this mean that the UK MOD didn’t get their hands on the extra UAV’s they were allegedly trying to obtain from the US for reconnaissance in Afghanistan ?

Wasn’t there some talk that Sir Bedivere or one of the other LST’s may be retained as well. Didn’t one of that class undergo a major ship life extension recently ?

Pilatus, I don’t think anyone has suggested that. France has the capability. It still owns some remote Islands doesn’t it ? So the question is equally as relevant to them. It has the advantage of having E-2’s as well as Awacs, which the Brits don’t.

I think Russia would have a go at long range. It certainly still has the sealift capacity if they bring in their merchant fleet and last time I looked they still had a significant number of large LST’s but don’t know how sericeable they are , no shortage of Copters either. Aircover ? Mmmmmmm

Re Sheffield and the Atlantic conveyor, were they not both technically disabled rather than sunk ? I recall seeing pictures of both still floating but burned out after missile strikes but I know they did both eventually slip under the waves. The Sheffield I think sank some days later when under tow, or is my memory remiss ?

The damage that air-power can do to warships was bought home to the Brits when they lost the battlecruiser Repulse and Battleship Prince of Wales the same day in Dec 1941.

Yes, but only to a point, it is reckoned that even with modern weapons Gibraltar would be a difficult nut to crack. I was chatting about this to an army officer acquantance a year or so ago, and he told me this sort of question is a regular ‘what if ?’ question set at staff college. Consensus has apparently been that all the underground facilities make it difficult to take without a long campaign assuming they are prepared. Though nothing is impossible.

The Dutch also have Subs don’t forget. I suspect that this would be a situation that a way would be found for the UK to assist. The Dutch and the UK cooperate very closely on many things, specifically naval .