We were right.
The next realization when it comes to the UK's Ministry of Defense is this. You boys are about to have a very rough ride.
Read CDR Salamander's post here (Welcome back CDR...I thought for a minute that you had gone over to the dark side. Nice to see you fighting on the side of truth, justice and the American way again!).
The point is...
On this side of the Atlantic....
With military bloggers that are well connected...
The UK's defense cuts are being seen as foolish....irresponsible....dangerous.
That's not the way a world power wants to be viewed.
By either friends....or enemies.
it seems like they are as capable of fighting a war as they are gum disease if the rumors of british dentistry are to believed :)
ReplyDeletei don't think their dentistry is as bad as what we're seeing militarily out of them these days.
ReplyDeletethe UK is filled with a proud people. with a storied military tradition.
i am critical of what they've done but i am hopeful that they will finally listen to their homegrown experts (like Sharkey) and get their house back in order.
its bad. but its not too late for them to get their act together.
I can only hope that you're right Sol. The British army are used to fighting without the best equipment and still do a damn good job when we put our minds to it. But there's only so far the skill of individual soldiers can take us, we do need more spending on kit and we do need a bigger force.
ReplyDeleteevery organization has its ups and downs, i think the RN is regretting shedding its harriers now but i do hope they come back and stronger than ever, britian and the US have clawed our way back to the top before, i am certain in time britain will do it again.
ReplyDeleteBTW grim, i dont know about the other equipment in the british army inventory but i definately dont want to be on the wrong end of a challenger MBT.
ReplyDeletejoe,
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anyone who would want to be on the pointy end of a challenger 2 without decisively superior numbers. Some of the stories I've heard about the amount of fire they cant take are ridiculous. We were world leaders in tank design, the Chally 2 only suffered from politics and late decision making, meaning the market was saturated with M1's and Leo2's. Now I doubt we could really build an MBT again without quite large cost, it's been too long since BAE's factories had a proper job ike that.
Don't get me wrong either, a lot of British equipment and innovation is top notch, but it gets stifled by the MOD, or the government and we either don't get the good stuff in service or anywhere near enough of it - or the disease of we take a good design and handicap it somehow (exports made hard by tailored design, or ships that have huge potential but not taken as far as necessary in reality or FFBNW etc). And being on the end of the British Army logisitics chain is enough to make anyone want to give up and curl into a ball and wait for the end. That's what happens when funding gets stifled, but its always been the British Army way, they don't throw money at a problem to solve it, even when a little maay have been prudent.
least of all is the rifled cannon.
ReplyDeletewhy rifled instead of smooth bore? i acknowledge the extra long hit scored against a T-72 but that had to cost it exports. the embargo against the Israeli's hurt too.
they would have gobbled up every challenger ever made but instead had to do their own version with the Merkava.
the market is being saturated by leos and M1s, which is sad because the challenger is by far one of the best tanks in the world, in a head to head match up with an M1, i am not sure who would win, i guess it would be more about skill of those inside it than the equipment. I know we are upgrading our M1s to the A4s, what is being done with the challengers? any upgrades you all have heard of? i know its been a while since britain had a major tank battle (i am not sure what kind of fight them taking Basra was), but its been a while but definitely a great piece of hardware.
ReplyDeletesorry meant A3 not A4.
ReplyDelete