Bad news for the RN!

[FLYBOYJ]

This don't look good!

Half of Britain's warships to be mothballed - Yahoo! News

[Glider]

But its not a suprise. I have always been doubtful over the two carriers and with them the aircraft to equip them.
You need to be aware that since the wars in Iraq and Afganistan began, the defence budget has been reduced and is now the lowest as a percentage of GDP since 1930. When Tony Blair makes all these statements about the support he gives to the troops and how he understands their needs, no one, but no one believes him.

[twoeagles]

A very great shame - mothballing a couple of ships is one thing, but HALF
of the fleet? I have always thought the Royal Navy, with is rich traditions
and long history, was a genuine source of pride for the British.
"Hail Britannia!" will almost seem to be mocking generations of seamen - it is
just difficult to seperate mental images of Great Britain from its naval heritage.

[Matt308]

Don't forget that the UK is building new aircraft carriers (with French) and new missile cruisers (I think) with the French and Italians. The carrier is supposed to complement the JSF procurement and is slated to be 2-3 times larger than Invincible. The new missile cruisers, as I recall, were incorporating stealth technology and sufficient energy reserves for directed energy weapons in future upgrades.

The Trident missile is undergoing upgrades and their subs are slated for replacement in the 2017 timeframe.

Don't know about other support vessels.

[Glider]

The carriers have not been ordered, in fact it hasn't even been decided who is going to build them. The missile carriers are our own design and I think only two have been ordered. Subs are only for discussion yet, be very carefull when listening about spending from Labour the detail is always missing

[Matt308]

Interesting, Glider. I thought that I just read the France and UK had agreed upon configuration and funding (ie France going with launch mechanism and UK going with ramp and launch mechanism provisions). Not true?

Agreed with Seawolf upgrade procurement.

And T45 has been built has it not?

[Nonskimmer]

Originally Posted by twoeagles

"Hail Britannia!" will almost seem to be mocking generations of seamen - it is
just difficult to seperate mental images of Great Britain from its naval heritage.

It's "Rule Britannia", and you're right. It seems such a damned shame. Once the world's greatest naval force - projection of power, protector of an empire - steadily reduced as it has been over the course of decades, and now...this.

[Glider]

Re the Carriers the only contracts that have ben signed are for the demonstration phase. Approval for construction has not been given and is overdue, manufacturing contracts are due in July 2007 and no one is talking about that at the moment. Costs have yet to be agreed between industry and the Goverment although the differences are not that big, £3.6 billion vs £3.8 billion. The Goverment have reserected a demand dropped 4 years ago that the UK shipbuilders restructure their industry as a prerequisit to signing. This is no simple task which will be a long time coming due to its complexity and more than one person thinks this is a stalling strategy to put off ordering the ships.

Re the Type 45 its a UK design as we pulled out of the joint approach in 1999. The govement said that there was a requirement for 12, approved the purchase of 8 and are now expecting that we will only buy 6. There are even hints that Saudi Arabia may want to buy two which will come from the 6 we have on order.

[Matt308]

Crap, I'm thinking of something else besides the Type 45. Is there another destroyer missile boat or some other that is coming on line with France and Italy?

[mkloby]

I'm pretty ignorant of British politics in most respects... but what are the results of the last elections held? Doesn't the diminishing defense expenditure bother many brits, affecting labour at the ballot box? How do the liberals and conservatives fare, and what is the anticipated result in upcoming elections? (are those the names of the others parties still?)

[plan_D]

The modern British populace cares more about football (soccer) than national pride, and tradition. You have all the louts with tattooes of the Union Jack, or British bulldog - and they're the disgraces to the nation!

The Royal Navy has been on the downfall for a long while, as has military spending. The Labour are too busy paying for asylum seekers, and throwing money at foreigners ...people may claim money also goes into the education and health too - WRONG. Health, military, education spending are all being cut! But the spending on foreigners is rising each year!

[Nonskimmer]

My god. That has an unpleasantly Canadian ring to it.

[plan_D]

Oh yes, no offence, but you lot across the pond have no idea how pathetic Britain really is. As a nation we're a disgrace to our own heritage and history. We built our power on industry and military might - and both have been practically abolished.

You still have the docile "die-hard" lout morons who claim that the U.S Army is crap and the British Army is the best in world. But they're the same kind of people with the British Bulldog tattoo, and telling me that Britain fought Germany and Russia in World War II.

Every part of Government spending bar on foreign causes is being cut; education, health, military, police, fire. You name it, it's being cut. And the taxes are rising, prices are rising; and the government has the bare faced cheek to stand up on their podium say they're doing it for the British public.

I don't care if this is considered racist - the White British born and bred are being dump on from great heights ,and they don't even care. Because all they're bothered about is the new "tune" in the charts, whether Man Utd. won or if some slag in a stupidly short skirt and every infection known to man will give 'em head.

And any Brits that disagree and want to tell me to leave the country - well I'm working on it as fast as possible. I'm somewhat ashamed to say it but I am willing to abandon this once great nation to the scum of the Earth. Our heritage will be vandalised, our Castles will burn and our culture will vanish. After ALL those wars, all those defences of these Isles - we've let it just eat away at us like a virus.

I F*CKING HATE THIS PLACE!

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Unfortunately i have to agree with pD, I'd never leave the country but this place is messed up, even down here where all minorities make up 2-3% of the population of Cornwall, political correctness is taking controll and stopping people from standing up for the military, but one of our biggest problems is EU membership, it gives us free trade and little else, but how much is "Free" trade costing us? £13 Billion a year! that's not free! the only major powers to trade with in the EU are France and Germany, and does anyone seriously think they'd stop trading with us just because we're not in the EU? France doesn't want to be in either but i dont know about Germany, what else do we get for our £13 Billion, we get a set of laws that over-rides our own, we get ruled from Brussles by a secret meetings of 2,000 un-elected officials that don't act in the interests of our own nation, i'm telling you this is the start of annother communist state the "United States of Europe", mark my words even Gorbachev has said the EU is becoming a soviet state (Ashley Mote's "Vigilance"), sure there's the elected EU commision but even the USSR had the elected Supreme Soviet, like the EU Commision they just rubber stamp things, there's nothing we get with the EU that we can't get for free outside of it, nothing! and what could we do with the extra £13 Billion? without increasing taxes we could completely sort out the NHS and Armed Forces in one year!

[Nonskimmer]

Like I said, it all has an unpleasantly familiar ring to it.