Half of British Royal Navy to be mothballed:

[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. But this seems unbelievable now.

[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.

[nightdagger]

Originally Posted by bradclark1

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.

Originally Posted by bradclark1

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.

[bradclark1]

Originally Posted by waste gate

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]

Originally Posted by bradclark1

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.

[diver]

Originally Posted by 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. But this seems unbelievable now.

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

[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.../06/navy06.xml

[badhat17]

Originally Posted by diver

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

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.