Half of British Royal Navy to be mothballed:

[bradclark1]

The move is seen as a cost-cutting measure by the Tony Blair government which is reportedly trying to cut the defence budget by 250 pounds amid major armed forces commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I know things are rough so have the PM call me and I'll loan the U.K. the 250 pounds needed.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=346065&sid=WOR

[STEED]

The move is seen as a cost-cutting measure by the Tony Blair government which is reportedly trying to cut the defence budget by 250 pounds amid major armed forces commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I know things are rough so have the PM call me and I'll loan the U.K. the 250 pounds needed.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=346065&sid=WOR

You can send him a letter.

Tony Blair M.P.
House of Commons
Westminster
London
England

[bradclark1]

I just dropped him an email. :D

I know things are rough so I thought I would offer the U.K. the 250 pounds needed to keep your fleet up.
The U.S. and the U.K. are very good friends and I'm half English so I'd like to do my bit to help out.

Edit: I put the article link above the paragraph but I think I should have added a Dear Sir or Dear Prime Minister or something.

[StdDev]

I just dropped him an email. :D

I know things are rough so I thought I would offer the U.K. the 250 pounds needed to keep your fleet up.
The U.S. and the U.K. are very good friends and I'm half English so I'd like to do my bit to help out.

Edit: I put the article link above the paragraph but I think I should have added a Dear Sir or Dear Prime Minister or something.

The proper form of address would be "DUDE!!! wassup!??" :know:

[Godalmighty83]

according to the mod no decision has been made regarding any future fleet cuts and wont be until 'review', i believe the royal navy has an internal review every summer.

the question was brought up in parliament by the Portsmouth mp to which the answer was pretty much 'no decisions have been made, don't know how this rumour started'

although it is very true that the budget for the royal navy is now very tight following several new projects sucking up funds.

iam really hoping this wont cut the amount of type 45's in the future, ive heard a rumour that more 45 hulls will be made but fitted with different weaponry to replace the current aging frigates without having to research a whole new ship design.

[August]

I never thought i'd see the day that England would actually consider turning the mighty Royal Navy, savior of Britain many times over, into a mere coastal defense force.

[XabbaRus]

I have been following this for sometime and it seems very much a typicaly story sex up by the news papers, headline grabbing.

There has been some interesting analysis on Strategy Page and also on navweapons.com website.

[AG124]

Is it just me, or has the Royal Navy been cutting down its strength drastically since the Second World War? Even back then, they scrapped every CA they had (unless you count the Southampton and Edinburgh classes as CAs) and then scrapped most of their carriers in the 50s and 60s.:nope: But this seems unbelievable now.:-?:o:stare::(:nope:

[U-533]

:hmm: this has me at a loss for words...

Maybe you don't need that many ships when you fight on sand...:hmm:


:-? idunno...

[Godalmighty83]

getting rid of all the old battleships was understandable, trimming the nuclear deterrent is also understandable what difference is there in wiping a enemy country out 50 times over instead of 500 and thats disregarding how modern warfare goes against attacking a full country.

cutting down on defence destroyers /frigates is not. submarines are debatable and IF the 2 planned large carriers come in then even though the total sea-based airforce is lower then id like its still potent. turning the current carriers into multi-role launch bays was imo a good idea seemingly thought out just for another falklands.

but as is theres little reserve /contingency and any extra cuts would completely remove power projection, if the navy had say only one big carrier it would never be used through fear it would be sunk.

[bradclark1]

If money is an issue and the ships are put in a well maintained mothball status and can be made active in a reasonable amount of time and a trained naval reserve is available to crew those ships I don't see any actual harm in it.
The U.K. is not an empire any longer so it does not need that dominating navy of times past to defend those colonies that no longer exist. No country today is going to fight a conventional war by themselves so there isn't a need to maintain a naval force larger then a primary reaction force. Unless you want to be a world super power why bother with the expense?
Now that I've used cold logic.....
The Falklands proved that isn't necessarily true but it was also a few years ago. What were the ship numbers from the Falklands?

[SUBMAN1]

It's history repeating itself. Democracies always have issues at the end of their times like this. The Roman Army turned purely professional too, remember? Its the beginning of the end. Wait till the people who vote realize they can vote more benefits for themselves - thats when the real end starts!

-S

[bradclark1]

Arnold called California a nation state today. Just have to wait for Texas.
Hmmm. The sky appears to be falling. ;)

[waste gate]

No country today is going to fight a conventional war by themselves so there isn't a need to maintain a naval force larger then a primary reaction force.

Based on the MSM and liberal left that is what the US is doing now with the WOT.
Sorry, but you cannot have it both ways. Pick one and stick to it.

[diver]

Is it just me, or has the Royal Navy been cutting down its strength drastically since the Second World War? Even back then, they scrapped every CA they had (unless you count the Southampton and Edinburgh classes as CAs) and then scrapped most of their carriers in the 50s and 60s.:nope: But this seems unbelievable now.:-?:o:stare::(:nope:


It would be even worse for the RN had the argies not decided to get frisky in 1982.

A few more months of Sth atlantic peace and the Invinceible and her Harriers would have been Australia's :cry:

[diver]

Officer promotions to be frozen for 5 years.


And 1,500 ratings to be fired.

Tony Blair, you have singlehandedly done what hundreds of years of enemies, from the Spanish to the Argies, could not, kill off the Royal Navy.

Who voted for that goose?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/06/navy06.xml

[bradclark1]

Based on the MSM and liberal left that is what the US is doing now with the WOT.
Sorry, but you cannot have it both ways. Pick one and stick to it.

You have me totally confused, and whats MSM and WOT?

[Abraham]

Well guys, fighting wars is expensive - even when necessairy - and the pain will be felt somewhere, sometime, by somebody...
:-?

[Subnuts]

Based on the MSM and liberal left that is what the US is doing now with the WOT.
Sorry, but you cannot have it both ways. Pick one and stick to it.
You have me totally confused, and whats MSM and WOT?

No idea. I guess it's easier for conservatives to speak entirely in acronyms these days.

[XabbaRus]

Can't believe all this hysteria. It is the Telegraph making a big hooha without prrof.

www.strategypage.com has got a good thread on this in the surface warships section where a current serving officer says he is unaware that any of the ships mentioned are mothballed save for Invincible that is in a state of readiness should she be needed.

[nightdagger]

Arnold called California a nation state today. Just have to wait for Texas.
Hmmm. The sky appears to be falling. ;)
I have no idea what you're talking about. In Texas we are already a country of our own. We don't need some pansy Terminator to tell us that.

[MadMike]

"You have me totally confused, and whats MSM and WOT?"

MSM- Main Stream Media
WOT- War on Terror

Yours, Mike

Anyone who was/is an AO, GM(T), WMT, 55 Golf, or ADM tech send me a PM... :rotfl:

[badhat17]

It would be even worse for the RN had the argies not decided to get frisky in 1982.

A few more months of Sth atlantic peace and the Invinceible and her Harriers would have been Australia's :cry:
Up for sale right now if your still interested, yours to sail away complete with airwing for just four million US dollars if press reports are to be believed.

[bradclark1]

MSM- Main Stream Media
WOT- War on Terror

Ahh. Thanks Mike. Well that part is straightened out.

Now the other part. (I must be having a senior moment.):cry:
Waste Gate, what can't I have both ways?

[bradclark1]

I have no idea what you're talking about. In Texas we are already a country of our own. We don't need some pansy Terminator to tell us that.
Nope. Texans think that but someone of fame has to say it so the rest of the country will know it. Willie Nelson doesn't count because he's always in trouble with the tax man.

[MadMike]

Yeah, and Texas has a nuclear arsenal...

Yours, Mike

[Yahoshua]

Well Mike, I wasn't any of those but I could sell you 20 ft of flight line, complete with bucket of paint and paintbrush!!

[bradclark1]

Yeah, and Texas has a nuclear arsenal...

Yours, Mike
A field full of jalapenos aren't a nuclear arsenal unless you are from New York City.