Errr . . . the quid pro quo for Scotland taking on its share of the debt is that it would get the same proportion of the assets. The RoUK is, absolutely, obliged to turn over the Scottish share of the armed forces, along with the Scottish share of everything else – as long as Scotland accepts its share of the debt, which the SNP says it will. It has to, of course, since not doing so would destroy the credit rating of an independent Scotland, & leave the majority of its banks controlled by the government in London.

Of course, immovable assets located in Scotland would count towards Scotland’s share of assets.

The US federal government’s position in 1861 is not a guide here. We don’t have a concept of central government assets being owned centrally, independently of the region in which they are located. We have, instead, innumerable precedents for assets being transferred back & forth between local & central government, depending on expediency. As far as our constitution is concerned, state assets are state assets, & it doesn’t matter very much which level of the state paid for them. Consider, for a moment, the National Health Service. Nobody is even talking about what would happen to NHS assets in Scotland if Scotland becomes independent. Why is that? Because there’s nothing to discuss: they will become Scottish assets. It’s taken for granted. What else could possibly happen? Even asking the question would be regarded as stupid. And so on . . .

The Scots paid for a share of central assets with their taxes, so if there’s a split, they own that share. It’s taken for granted. The only areas for debate are exactly what their share is, & the fine detail of who gets what. If you disagree with how we do things, well, so what? Your opinions carry no weight.

Ask yourself this: how does the UK guard the Irish coast?

I agree with most if not all what you say about splitting assets however by defending it own cost the UK naturally defends the Irish cost in the most part this will not be the same of the North and East Scottish costs and this is why a SDF will need to be more powerful than the Irish forces

And we all know that any white paper English or Scottish is Lie’s dam lie’s and statistics and only written to push the thinking of those writing it and the one thing we as tax payers can be sure of on both sides is this will cost us a lot of money

I think the question is how many of the Scots within the UK armed forces will want to transfer across and that is as bigger deal as any equipment

how dose Ka-31 stack up against Sea-King ASaC7 as a package

I do agree with you regarding the 130.

However, A29 have proved to be not really cost effective regarding direct acquisition price and since they failed to replace the A37 in the long term.

@MadRat: how do you see a double sided offer from Italy with AMX/Typhoon TR1 (a handful only) and involvement in their low-cost trainer?

How has A-29 failed to replace A-37 is it operating performance – operating costs or both

also with mention to the fact they are looking at a AEW platform as well a deal with Saab 2000 AEW and Gripen C/D could be a good move