Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Think Defence on 'reading between the lines'

Think Defence has an excellent article on a leaked letter.  At the end of his piece he asks a couple of questions.

Why the focus on naval matters and what does this mean.

My take is that the Brits are blinking on the aircraft carrier controversy and on the F-35.  To move away from their naval roots would be to abandon there role on the world stage.  That would alarm and embolden nations both in Europe (France comes immediately to mind...it seems as if they want to be the 'military' leader of the EU, while Germany seeks to be its economic powerhouse...the UK balances them both) and could even affect US relations with China.

Forget the sensational newspaper stories.  The carriers and the F-35 will survive and thrive wearing British colors.