The heads of the US Navy, US Marine Corps and Royal Navy have pledged ever closer cooperation after a key meeting in Washington reaffirming the close bond between our maritime forces, say the Royal Navy here.

Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mike Gilday, Commandant Marine Corps, General David Berger, and First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key, met on the eve of the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar to discuss operations and strategy as well as progress on closer cooperation over the next two years.

“They are resolved to press ahead with joint operations, harnessing the white heat of the two nations’ technology, working seamlessly side-by-side wherever they deploy around the globe and delivering combined seapower. And that seamless cooperation fully embraces the US Marine Corps who will continue to work, train and develop tactics and ideas with the Royal Marines.”

Admiral Key was quoted as saying:

“We have refreshed our long-standing commitment for us to work collaboratively across the world, from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific Regions, and to stand together to safeguard the use of the global maritime commons upon which our combined security and prosperity depend.”

You can read more on this here.

Tom Dunlop
Tom Dunlop
Tom has spent the last 13 years working in the defence industry, specifically military and commercial shipbuilding. His work has taken him around Europe and the Far East, he is currently based in Scotland.

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153 COMMENTS

  1. I think our US cousins are going to be mighty pissed off if the budget is cut agai and we cannot fulfil our promise globally.

    • you might be right there, Wallace and Sunak were already at loggerheads when Sunak was Chancellor, now he,s prime minister will he change or still stick to his mantra??? maybe wallace should have run for PM instead of Truss !

    • I’m not sure anyone gives **** what our “cousins” think anymore. The US treats us increasingly hostile on trade and other matters. It’s political leadership is vocal in its dislike of our country.

      Not really sure what the US has to offer us.

          • If you think that then you seem to be ignorant of, oh World War 1, World War 2, The Falklands War, The Cold War, etc…

          • No Sean, I am certain I have far more knowledge of those conflicts than you do and a significantly better understanding of The USA contribution or lack of contribution to those conflicts.

            Are there any questions you would like me to answer for you ?

            Can you tell me when The USA declared war on Germany in the second world war?

          • And I am certain you’re a xenophobe which is only slightly better than a racist.

            You clearly don’t have any understanding of those conflicts if you think the Romans have done more for us than the Americans.

          • I don’t know Sean, for a start there’s the viaducts.

            “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
            “Brought peace.”
            “Oh. Peace? Shut up😉

          • ah the unjustified use of the word racist (direct or implied/associated no matter) to try and shout someone down who has a different viewpoint to yours…. The standard approach in any social media forum these days …dissappointing it seems this seems to be going the same way.

          • If someone is a racist, you call them out as one.
            If someone is a xenophobe, they too should be called out for their vile beliefs.
            If you want to turn a blind eye to shameful beliefs then that’s between you and your conscience.

          • Maybe you should do that if you find any racism and Xenophobia, instead of, as you are doing now, just screaming racist and Xenophobic, where none exists, simply because you have no constructive rebuttal
            People like you have made the words virtually meaningless by screaming them at everyone who doesn’t agree with you, you should be ashamed

          • Maybe if you bothered to read posts before feeling the urge to spout off you’d realise I didn’t call anyone a racist. I did point out the xenophobia that was on obvious display, that you can’t see any suggests you should check your own moral compass.

          • Try rereading my comment slowly, maybe moving your lips or even aloud if it’ll help you comprehend it better.
            I said nobody was a racist, but Jim’s xenophobia’s comments about Americans is there to see.
            Free speech comes with a responsibility too.

          • They didn’t get a chance, Hitler did it before they got a chance. But the US was doing quite a lot to flex their neutrality in our direction. The USN Neutrality Patrol makes for some interesting research, especially when it concerns the Bismarck. Spotted from a RAF, US supplied Catalina by a serving USN Officer.

          • If Casper Weinberger hadn’t been the US Defense Sec in 1982 the US Administration would have followed the same policy as the Suez crisis. That’s a matter of public record.

          • Are you sure? I find it incredible that the US would penalise the UK for ejecting a foreign invader from British territory.

          • Yeah. I should have called him Sir Casper Weinberger he was knighted by HMG. Something I can’t think of any other foreign politician being awarded. Sadly he passed away a fair few years ago now but I remember reading about it in at least one of his UK obituaries. Can’t recall where but i’d guess either the Daily Telegraph or Times.

          • There are more than him.
            President Ronald W Reagan GCB(Hon)
            President H W Bush GCB(Hon)
            General of the Army’s Dwight D Eisenhower GCB(Hon)
            The latter was awarded pre political career in 1943 and unless anyone knows any different is the only Knight to be elected President of the USA.

            Every day is a school day 🤔

          • He was a great guy – very experienced and hugely sensible. I heard him speak once at the Greenwich Naval College.

          • He was a gentleman which was rare even back then. For me him and John Lehman are the masterminds of the defeat of the USSR.

          • I’m not convinced. Certainly the State Dept was worried that backing the U.K. would push the whole of South America towards the Communist sphere of influence. That was certainly a concern for us to, as while the Falklands was a hot war, it was small compared to the greater conflict against Communism. But I suspect Thatcher would have convinced Reagan to back us regardless.

          • Yes that was possibly the difference in the dynamic at the time – Reagan & Thatcher actually appeared to get on.
            Plus of course it was still relatively close to the 2nd world war so there was some general connection/appreciation. It’s hard to believe it was actually closer to the end of the war than it is to now!
            These days I’m not so sure the same connection exists- and there were plenty in the US that tried not to get involved even then (publicly at least).

      • There is a completely different relationship between the military and intelligence. Forget the political shenanigans its for public consumption.

        • is it really – so what you are saying is…when they need a patsy to join them in some conflict to give it some credence they can turn to us…slap us on the back …but in the meantime the NY Times & Joe O’Biden can fuck us over when ever they like.
          The US only looks after one thing…itself

          • Yes it is. I’m telling you the defence and intelligence doctrine of the US and UK is enduring. Politicians and their stance are for public consumption, many might say Biden is no anglofile, so what he supported this country when it came to the Falkand conflict. I’m no Biden fan and the US is in a real mess politically and economically. Each country looks after its own interests. I respect your opinion but it is not as cut and dried as you are alluding to.

          • This.

            I’m an American, most of my family have served in our armed forces, and BY FAR the feedback from them is how Brits are our closest Allies. The US is a big/diverse country with a wide variety of opinions but it has been my experience that Brits are uniformly viewed as our family. Sorry we let you down, but the US is still a very young nation that’s not even 300 years old.

            My one Grandfather died just 2 months after D-Day in WW2 fighting in Normandy, and my other grandfather was a US Marine fighter pilot in the Pacific theater fighting against Japan. The notion that we just sat on our a** in WW2 is baloney.

            No two nations have ever had a relationship like we have and it’s for the benefit of the entire world that we stay close and as Allied w/one another as possible.

          • West Point hello, the derogatory comments did not come from me my friend. Im an Air Force vet of 25 years and worked closely with USAF and the Marine corps and made many friends over the years and some I am still in touch with. We all bought something to the table and learned a great deal from each other. Im not going to apologise for grizzler who is nothing than a little irrelevant, he,her,who can apologise to you.

          • You are correct West Point we are very close and I am proud of that. The English speaking world needs to stick to together.

          • Sleepy Joe, many Irish-Americans and segments of the liberal media have a neutral to negative view of the UK; however the US has 330+M residents, and do not believe this reflects a majority view–certainly not in the defense and intelligence sectors.

          • If it was just sleepy Joe then fair enough but Obama hated us too and Trump was Trump.

            As you say cooperation in defence circles has never been so tight but that can’t last in a vacuum. Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove all US Troops world wide in 6 weeks. Biden told us to f**k right off when withdrawing from Afghanistan even though it was a war we fought purely to protect America. Obama ducked so many meetings with Gordon Brown that he had to jump him in a hotel kitchen at the UN to get a meeting.

            The military and security relationship can’t go on long term if the political relationship is so bad.

            The political relationship is so bad because US presidents and to a certain extent the American people think they pay for our defence and or we need them for our security.

            We are not Germany or Japan, we don’t need s**t from anyone when it comes to defence.

            We are the one with the world wide network of sovereign bases conveniently located at the centre of most oceans and next to all the maritime choke points. We are the only country that can and has deployed a division sized force any where in the world.

            It’s time for the UK government to bring this to a head and get the American political class to come up with a real debate on how the relationship is rather then a constant stream of Generals and Admirals who have zero power to make decisions come out and tell us how important we are to the US while simultaneously the Secretary of State tells us we are too small to consider for a trade deal.

            Putting Biden at the back of the crowd at the Queen’s Funeral was a good start, NATO membership and base leases should be next.

            US politics are going to continue to get worse and if the relationship is not confirmed in the same way America constantly reiterates it’s support for Israel then things will just keep getting worse.

          • Agreed. The US public is far more favourable toward the UK than the current WH. Congress and Liberal media.

        • Yeah that’s exactly the issue but the political side is not shenanigans but the heart of the relationship. What’s the point in being allied so closely military with a country that no longer shares your values and does not value your friendship. If we are too small to conduct a trade deal with then why do they need to cooperate with us on defence. Let them go after China on their own. China poses no security risk to us. Do I want to get glassed by China to send a warning to the US in a shooting war to protect an island that would not lift a finger to help us to honour a US promise made in 1949.

          • 6 weeks ago and I found most Americans (in the Midwest at-least) love the UK, much as I find most people in the UK love the USA. The Democratic Party leadership hate us and the Republican leadership claim to love us but would sell us down the river in a heart beat if it suited them.

          • It’s always the same with you, you make a stupid, sweeping generalisation to make a political point, and when challenged you row back on it because you know it’s indefensible.
            So you admit it’s not America that no-longer values our friendship but rather the politicians.
            I have no doubt you’re equally wrong there too.
            It may shock you to here this, but the first priority of American politicians should be Americans, as the first priority of British politicians should be Britons.
            That’s a simple political reality and as it should be.

          • Yes I agree, that’s why I advocate for the UK leaving NATO as it’s not in the UK interest anymore. We should have bi lateral agreements with the USA and the EU that benefit the UK. International relations should be transactional and two sided as neither the EU or the USA believe in friends.

          • Yea we’ve heard of your ridiculous anti-NATO rhetoric in the past. Thankfully the only MP advocating that is the notorious anti-Semite, Jeremy Corbyn so I don’t see that happening.

            So you think relations should be transactional? That doesn’t sound like relations but more like business. How does that philosophy work for your wife?

            Friends are for school playgrounds.

          • Well done Sean once again you take rational arguments and counter points of view and come back with name calling.

            I think this forum is a bit too high brow for you. Maybe get yourself on Twitter or Reddit leave real discussion to the grown ups.

          • Ah the lying idiot is back. Being an idiot is would be forgivable if you didn’t broadcast your stupidity to everyone, but telling barefaced untruths is not.

            You sound a bit uptight, I’m guessing you still haven’t done sufficient household chores to earn a blowjob from your wife in the transactional relationship that you advocate.

        • Our submarines are fully under NATO control, the US is giving us nothing. They are allowing us to pay to supplant their battle plan. That made sense when we were facing the Soviets but not China. We are more than capable of developing our own deterrent. In the 1950’s ICBMs we’re cutting edge. Nowadays anyone from North Korea to a small company in Scotland with a big shed can build them.

          • SSBNs are not under NATO control. It is the UKs independent deterrent. Neither are they declared to NATO.

          • Our SSBNs are under UK control, with tasking ultimately set by HMG. We are part of NATO and our SSBN patrols cover UK/NATO tasking as part of said membership. Totally different to being under NATO control, which they most certainly are not.

          • You also seem to be ignorant of the fact we have a pool of Trident missiles with the USA, we both draw from the same pool and fit our own warheads.

            Our SSBNs are not under NATO control.

            North Korea has yet to build an ICBM, they do have ballistic missiles.

            Just about everything you claim is demonstrably wrong 🤣

          • At one time I would have said he was a wind-up merchant, but the pandemic has taught me there are lots of people that will believe the most ridiculous things: anti-vax, NWO, flat-earth, chem-trails, 5G death rays, etc 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

          • There is a pool of missiles in America where they are maintained and sent to us. Our SSBN’s are under NATO control. How do you think we would fight a nuclear war as part of NATO if the submarines were not controlled centrally. Trident D5 is NATO/USA main means of nuclear counter force. That does not mean we can’t fire them ourselves as the officers on a Vanguard has the ability to launch themselves but in an integrated nuclear force ours SSBN’s will be firing and ultimately at the infection of the US president.

          • There’s a pool of missiles in America, which the USN and RN both draw from. They aren’t sent to us, we go collect them – sheesh you can’t even get that right.

            Our SSBNs are NOT under NATO control. The my are not “controlled centrally”, and we wouldn’t fight a war with them. A decision from the PM to fire them would end any war that was happening, along with life on earth.
            Stop lying.

          • You don’t fight an integrated strategic nuclear war. You press some buttons and kiss your arse goodbye. We don’t do tactical.

            And the last thing you want to do with a second strike deterrent is have unified command, as that’s only one potential weak link the enemy might calculate they could get past. With multiple separate commands an enemy will always calculate the risk of triggering annihilation are too great.

          • That doesn’t make any sense. How can our boats be controlled by nato but we can do what we want with them.
            That’s not controlled by nato. That is the U.K. government choose to make them available to be asked by nato if we could hit certain targets on request if the U.K. government decide they want to take part.
            You need to change your wording as it has sounded like you are saying nato control all aspects of the boats and the U.K. government has no control, that is very misleading.

          • ? HMG has believed RN/USN cooperation re nuclear deterrent/nuclear propulsion since 1958, through multiple Tory and Labor governments. UK has sole operational control of Vanguard fleet; chooses to remain in cooperative venture w/ USN to realize significant cost savings. Integration into US SIOP is based on rational intent to maximize effectiveness and minimize potential fratricide.

          • Think about how that works in practice though. The UK is integrated in to the US plan which makes sense as you don’t want to hit the same targets or destroy each other’s warheads striking the same target.

            Orders to launch however especially in counter strike will have to go out in 6 minutes or less.

            In that 6 minutes if the British prime minister is even alive they will be bolting to get our of London ASAP.

            Now tell me who is ordering the missiles to be fired. Ever notice how our PM does not carry an equivalent to the nuclear football but but every other leader does.

            How come our PM is the only leader that writes a letter to the submarine captains on what to do after a nuclear attack.

            Our missiles don’t need launch codes issued by the UK government our commanders can fire then independently, Why?

            Who do you think it’s firing our missiles now?

          • You don’t have to convince the 99 per cent. We get it Formers. ‘Flogging a dead horse’ mate.

          • In actual fact having a demonstrable independent Nuclear deterrent has been a really important contribution to world peace.
            This was especially true during the Cold War, any Soviet leader had to try and figure out the following questions.

            “If we have a war with NATO and we use Tactical Nucs will the US really trade Washington for Moscow ?”.

            Then “meanwhile what will U.K. and France do ?”

            Hence the rollocking Macron got from U.K. and US for stating France would not commit the “Force de Frappe” if Russia Nucs the Ukraine.

          • Our submarines are not under nato control. I don’t know where you get that from (sources welcomed). Does nato write the letters of last resort. No Does nato dictate our patrol times and areas. No
            Does nato target and launch the missiles, no. If all SSBNs in nato were controlled by nato we wouldn’t of crashed into a french SSBN a few years back.

      • Hello Jim. I think at the political level you are not entirely wrong to be sceptical. But my sense is that on the military to military level matters are very different. Hollywood likes its U.S. military to be a sort of Pounl@nd Patton, all mouth and medals; but I have noted down the years the U.S.brass at the frontline have a sharper and more complimentary view of our two pennyworth. Of course, we also don’t know everything we do for our American Ally …

        • We have spent 70 years taking a highly effective independent force and turning it in to a US add on. With basically every question asked at the MOD being what do the Americans want/need? It’s not surprising that the US military and intelligence service see a need for us.

          I just don’t see what’s in it for us that much any more, the political situation is just too toxic, we are pulling the US in to Eastern Europe and Ukraine and in return we are off to hold the line against China in the Indian Ocean.

          Non of that benefits us greatly and costs us a lot.

          It’s pretty simple, all America has to do is either give us a free trade deal or let us in to NAFTA and get its politicians to keep their mouths shut on UK domestic matters the way ours do on theirs(even Liz Truss can do that, that’s how low the bar is Nancy)

          We need to get away from the post war mentality when we had global responsibility and needed US assistance or where bankrupt and needed US to support us at the IMF.

          The US did support us but at a price. Now it’s the US that has global security commitments and an empire not us. It’s the US facing down a super power rival in its backyard and the US is the one drowning in debt.

          It’s time for the Uk to start looking at its own interest as other do.

          • Ahh we get down to it. Your annoyed the U.K. never got special treatment for a trade deal after brexit. Even though the U.K. was told that would not happen and in the USA view doing a brexit is a bad idea. Sorted

      • It isn’t vocal in its dislike for the U.K. it disagrees with they way we left the EU and the strain that has put on relationships between the U.K, Ireland and the EU as a whole. The trade between the U.K. and America is the same as it was before we left the EU.
        The Americans stated before brexit that we would not get special treatment with trade if we left the EU.
        They see it that we are putting the good Friday agreement at risk and as a lot more Americans think they are part Irish than part English their leaderships will try to appeal voice the thinking of this demographic.
        Anyway we only hear about the odd comment that’s viewed as bad and not about the 1000’s of good work and comments that are constantly being done.

  2. It would be good if the US bought our T26 design so they can benefit from the best ASW design skills in the world. That would make the T26 the F35 of the seas and the 5 eyes standard

        • Based… in that its grey!

          They want a lot of frigates. I would not be surprised if they don’t revisit the requirement later on. The USN has also pulled the plug on its own homemade sonar and gone for 2087/CAPTAS.

          • Only comes in grey!! That’s a bit stingy!!😁
            Didn’t know about ST 2087/CAPTAS ta.
            Yes, I can see them ordering a second batch of 24 very easily. Just remains to be seen how the Constellation class panes out I imagine.

          • “They want a lot of frigates.”

            This!!!

            It will likely be a next decade at a minimum before they can figure out the DDG(X) and in that time they will need a lot more surface combatants. I’m betting the T26 gets another shot at this.

          • doubt it Type 26 is too costly. BAEs fault. 1.26 billion each vs Fremm at £700 million. The USN will just ramp up fremm construction. The Constellation class needs to add platform numbers and deliver a decent ASW capability thereby freeing up the Arleigh Burkes to thicken out the surface action groups and enlarge/ strengthen carrier strike groups.
            I agree about the type 26 being a great warship, likely superior to FREMM but i don’t think the cost justifies the performance gain over a FREMM unfortunately.
            This is from a very pro British, pro UK warship construction reader.
            BAE need to bring type 26 down to around £800 million then we will be game on and can get a few more of these hulls ordered. That is only if Sunak and Hunt don’t do Austerity 2 and cause cuts to defence budget at a time we need to be putting on critical mass and preparing for an inevitable conflict with Sino-Russian axis in the near future.

          • Agree. First FFG decision dictated by terms of procurement. USN wanted a relatively safe bet after being burned on LCS class.

    • Agree, believe T-26 design would have been chosen by USN, if it has been deployed at the time competition conducted. There may be an opportunity to revisit issue later. Also believe an opportunity could exist for co-development of a modular DDX/D-83.

      • Modular development is the way forward, and DDX/D83 would be a good symbol of NATO Unity.
        Perhaps even as “capital” ships for non-NATO but aligned nations?

      • I think that would be a much more exciting opportunity if the RN and USN combined to develop a joint heavy destroyer- something in the 12-14,000 ton class. Even if it was just the hull form and some of the weaponry shared- with UK fitting its own propulsion, sensors and counter measures/ 2nd armament. that would be fine. The DDX / Type 83 needs to come in around the 1-1.5 billion pound mark for the RN to get the numbers needed 12 hulls has to be a minimum to support an indigenous BMD capability and coverage around majority of the UK.

        • It would really depend on what price the usn get their destroyer priced up at. It will probably be too expensive and too large a crew for the navy. The U.K. can design and build good ships. How much the USA wants to share development is another issue.

  3. A financial technocrat is now UK PM. If Wallace goes? Defence will take a hit as will the rest of the “government” departments that are under the microscope. A return to austerity will mean one thing, stringing out equipment purchases over longer periods. And be realistic, even if they win the next election, it will not alter that. Britain’s politicians of all shades look after themselves first, country does not come into it. Any study of the Covid fiasco shows who’s pockets get lined.

    • I predict that defence will be hit extremely badly (maybe even less than 2% of GDP)…I read some polls in the UK that indicated the UK public wants that budget hit before other public services. Therefore, easy political win for Sunak…I suspect Wallace will resign and take up a senior NATO position and then resign as an MP. Wallace knows the coming Tsunami which will engulf the Tory party….and yes I am a former Tory voter for 30 years that will definitely not vote Tory now regardless of whether the Labour party gets in. There is no difference between the Labour and Tory parties now…woke, left wing, mass migration, poor defence, fiscal incontinence..and massive handouts…overseas aid budget ballooning…you name it both major parties are a joke now – both the same…no difference between them aside from one sells off everything to foreign buyers at knock down prices (industry, infrastructure etc) and one wants to buy everything….two extremes instead of a happy medium approach…

      • Agree with that. Starmer has moved the goalposts away from Corbyn and the real communists. I see TB Liar has been “advising”. Sadly seven million on waiting lists does more to sway voters than a Type 26 or anything else. When he made the reds sing God Save The King it made me chuckle, but he did it. And yes, there is no difference. More of the “social democrat” model we used to see in Europe. Then I am getting to the age that nothing about this country surprises me anymore. Politicians are snake oil salesmen. Trust them at your peril.

      • Wallace has been asked to stay and has agreed. I think he’d have asked the financial question before saying yes. So leaving the mythical 3% to one side, I think we won’t get major cuts next year. If the election is in May ’24, I’d say two reasonable years to come, followed by who knows what?

        • Presumably, revised target will be somewhere between 2.25% and 3.00%? May not be stated explicitly in print. Believe in this environment, every additional £ should be considered at least a moral victory.

    • Sadly all too true. Covid national inquiry really should lead to police investigation and arrests- I’m thinking Matt Hancock and his dodgy PPE contracts paid to his pub landlord as one example. Or the national track and trace system being developed by Dominic Cummings sister’s IT company- who had literally zero experience of health care applications or national IT programmes. Hence cost in the tens of Billions and it never even worked. Vs offered South Korean tracking system was offered to the UK at the start of covid for £26 million- and we said no- lets have a UK produced system and we now all know the end result. utter corruption and waste of public £.

      • It’s the great thing about America, they can always pass the buck and tell you it’s someone else in their government screwing you.

        We should put our NATO membership up for consideration at the next SDSR. Let Pelosi and Biden examine what benefits Ireland can bring them on defence cooperation.

        Not sure when the Diego Garcia and Ascension bases leases are up as well but I would put them on notice. Also give them a time when Fylingdales will be closing as well so we can comply with ABM treaty.

        Lakenhealth should go as well. The UK does not need a single US bases especially when they allow their service personals family’s to commit manslaughter then refuse extradition.

        The reality is we put way more in to the “special relationship” than they do. We got way more to offer then than they can offer us.

        They have greater military cooperation with Israel a country which have never once assisted America and costs them a fortune.

        • I get your anger I feel it too sometimes. What stops me is the alternatives. We don’t have the defence budget to go it alone in most areas. I’d give Tempest as an example. We’ve got a promising relationship developing with Japan but Japan is absolutely depending on US help dealing with China. If we went with your options right now the US would turn the screw on them to walk away from Tempest which they’d have little choice but to do so. On EU primarily France we have the US or a.n. other card to play when dealing with them. I would be very concerned what would happen if we gave that up. I think we should have a policy of US only if there’s no other option and privately make it clear to the US political establishment what it is and why we’re doing so.

          • We have the third biggest defence budget in the world and face almost no threats. We can easily go it alone on defence. We can’t be a global super power but we are not now and the relationship with the US is now so one sided it’s hard to say that our current relationship buys us anything internationally. America is currently do us a favour by giving arms to Ukraine, how’s that doing us a favour? The UK is the only country dumb enough to think that when someone sells you guns to fight their war (1941) that they are doing you a favour. Ukraine thinks it’s doing us a favour not the other way around.

            We can walk away without turning our back. Not advocating being hostile to the US merely redefining our relationship with them based on their actions. We can be on the same side but with greatly reduced cooperation more along the lines of Australia/US relations. Bi lateral not multi lateral with no permanent integrated command. Cooperation when we have shared interest like Ukraine but not on areas where we want to differ Taiwan Straits, Iran, Saudi etc. Basing leases should be based leases and other areas of cooperation should be directly linked to economic benefits such as trade deals or technology transfers. Exactly the way Trump did it with Japan Canada and Mexico.

            Also in NATO or not the US will do everything it can to kill Tempest for Japan as they will want to sell them more F35’s. Remember they killed TSR2 with an unrealistic offer on F111.

            It’s Japan that wants an indigenous capability. It tried to get this from the US first and was refused because Uncle Sam don’t recognise friends when US jobs and defence contractors are at risk.

            The UK (BAE/RR) is the only other western nation that co developed a 5th Gen aircraft so Japan turned to us. Same as Turkey.

            On the flip side with the EU leaving NATO and conducting a bilateral security deal with the EU can probably get us what we need to fix Brexit I.e single market access and financial pass-porting with out the problems.

            The UK has great stock for its actions and capability in Ukraine, it’s the UK that started it all and pulled the USA in. However moving forward the story will be how America defeated Russia just as it won the Cold War and defeated the Nazi’s singled handed then our political capital will be gone again.

            Russia is a joke so now is the time the UK can safely out NATO membership up for debate.

  5. I feel sorry for the US they have a senile old fool for a President and head of the armed forces. The Vice President is an insane cackling women who needs to tell people what she wears at meetings and her pro-nouns – probably because she is confused herself…The President was wandering around and had to be guided to the right direction in his latest interview he also nodded off. Can you imagine this man has his finger on the nuclear button…..very scary indeed. However, not quite so bad as in the UK when we go through three Prime Ministers in short order…May, Boris, Truss and on our forth which is Sunak…soon to be an ex-PM I suspect….The west is incredibly weak just as China is rising rapidly to be the main super-power in the world…This is caused by weak leadership in the West and too many bleading heart liberals…and insane left wing anarchists that should have been locked up years ago…the perfect recipe for future conflict…and community disorder that weakens the west internally. I’m just puzzled how this all happened….I can probably provide a link back to the Clinton and Blair eras….

  6. I just get the impression that China is just itching for a fight here sometime soon. Xi is now in his unprecedented 3rd term and has made no bones on his intent toward Taiwan. China is throwing its weight around SE Asia and has spent the last 20yrs building up their armed forces – especially their navy – and I don’t think they can’t wait to use their shinny new toys!

    That said, they need to be careful for what they wish; their armed forces haven’t seen active combat in decades and whilst they may have numerical superiority, I’m not sure what their equipment quality is like or crew training. I have a funny feeling US – and potentially UK – submarines would have a field day picking off the Chinese surface fleet!

    • Even the UK could probably defeat China in a conventional war on its own. Basically using Diego Garcia to blockade the Indian Ocean the Falklands and Cayman Islands to Blockade the Pacific and Panama Canal to oil headed for China. There would be very little China could do at the moment to get past such a blockade and it would result in mass starvation and economic collapse in China with in a year. Against the US and other Allie’s China would have zero chance in a protracted war. However they may feel as Japan and Germany did that they could win a quick war and that the USA would be unwilling to pay the price of total war.

      Hopefully they don’t make the same mistakes of 1914 or 1941.

      They are in an incredibly vulnerable economic position and there military may appear impressive but like the Russians it’s probably lacking so many basics and it’s a completely inexperienced force.

    • They are itching for one within the the communist party. US, UK, South Korean and Japanese tech would have a field day picking off their surface fleet not to mention any Taiwan land based air/naval defence.

      Cooler heads are running China currently after what they saw happen to Russia in the Ukraine. That will not last though.

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