As far as amphibious forces…

2 Carriers/LHA scrapped
1 Bay Class LPD(A) scrapped
1 Albion LPD put into reserve

this leaves…

2 Carriers/LHA
1 Albion LPD
3 Bay Class LPD(A)
8 Point Class LST

The knowledge that at least some one is using them.

LMFAO! Priceless!

Want to give them a few hundred nukes too?

Your right not to trust the Irish! They are just itching to launch an attack!

Though in all seriousness, Northern Ireland has zero fighter cover of its own and the British mainland provides cover for the South too. A base in Wales could provide that cover, and supplement cover for the South West. Oh but no, Scotland needs its full 5 squdrons!

That’s not actually true.

Scotland is much more sparsely populated than England, with less congested airspace and much more open space available for training.

Yet wales has no front line fighter or strike squadrons… and RAF Leuchars is about 7 miles from Dundee, and 16 from Glenrothes.

You’re trolling.

You don’t need more aircraft to defend a space because there are more people in it.

You’ve not addressed the several other reasons (e.g. proximity to airspace for training) already put to you.

Ahh yes, so when I don’t come around to your opinion, I’m a troll. Don’t worry, I’m used to that line of argument! In fact, Marc Sampaix has reminded me for about 6 years that I am a pathetic troll, I should go play orange and lemon with Jon Jake because we both are failures like the Eurofighter, that my mother is this that and the other. Really, you’re wasting your time trying to insult me into accepting your opinion over my own, you’ll just drive yourself insane trying, just like he did 🙂

Maybe we could give them the Ark and some Harriers in return for a swing towards Typhoon in MRCA?

I assume there is no chance of shifting a few of the Tornadoes to anyone though.

Oh boy, so you want to give 4 free Type 23 to Brazil and 1 carrier and the Harrier fleet to India. Wow, generous man. I guess you’d like international aid doubled or tripled too?

yes give them Ark Royal.

India is going to be the biggest arms buyer over the next 10 years and we need to sweeten them up.

If they hadn’t developed their own MBT or were so desperate to have one matcht he west I would say offer them the Chall 2’s we dont need. We give them Ark they buy 100 Challs.

Not really, it will just make us look weak, and make getting a good price for anything near impossible (assuming we have anything left to sell after Grim gives it all away for free).

Better, that’s correct, but not good at all. I still don’t believe that it would be made into a 66kt, 3 Billion pound, LPH.

Except that it was planned, from the start, to be used as either an LPH or a CVA.

Cameron is going to announce the cuts at 15:30.

If the Nimrods really are to go it’s the final gem in the crown of insanity that sits on the MOD’s head, but then again I can’t say much would surprise me any more.

I feel just about fired up to start some kind of public campaign about this, if anything they should be INCREASING the defense spend.

Well the general thing seems to be a few departments get vast amounts of money from Labour, then under the Conservatives all the departments get cut to pay for it. In fact, health, which got many billions in increases under the last parliament is getting ANOTHER rise. That would be all well and good, but the service is not really reflecting the money, much of it went on wages, and the NHS is still management heavy and clinical staff short. Paying existing doctors more does not more doctors make, in fact it reduces the number of doctor hours available as they take more time off!!! 😡

But you would, presumably, accept that there have been several years of grossly inept financial control within the MoD and service chiefs have been allowed to fund irresponsibly.

So now those days are over and the country has to live within its means. I totally disagree with how the cuts are being reportedly planned but am holding my powder dry until we actually have the full defence picture today and the spending review tomorrow and then finally the speculation and leaks are over and we can debate the facts.

The bureaucrats are still likely to worm their way out of the cuts. I sincerely I hope they cut at least 30% of every bureaucrat division in each department.

Not so insane.

Since you are here, and I do hate to go slightly off topic here, but do you have any estimates for the the RCS of Taranis? I’ve seen your RADAR and RCS tables (which you were bashed for on F16.net), so was curious as to your view.

No, it’s to do with geographical area, cost of land, availability of uncluttered airspace for training, proximity to the routes which intruding aircraft take, etc.

Scotland has 9% of the population of the UK, but almost 33% of the land area, & that land is more spread out than the rest, because of the outlying islands.

Just like the proximity of the carrier workshare to Gordon Brown’s constituency has no relation, right? :rolleyes:

The first CVF as an LPH? That’s insanity!

But better than scrapping it or selling it. Plus that way if we ever want a second carrier, we can just refit the QE.