British jets conduct new bombing raid in Yemen

Our election should probably happen in May, wouldn’t be surprised if the QE sets sail soon to try and keep the news on it, rather than the Conservative infighting. That’s assuming they can figure out the logistics issues.

we’ll have run out of weapons by then.

Kinda depends, we have joined in on 2 of the runs out of several dozen done by the US. Seems we are pacing ourselves.

Like the Americans are doing with our f 35 order

even the ukraine has gone out of the news.

that would require diverting money that can be used for vitally important tax cuts.

The money could be used to subsidise another tea break for the por rubbish.

23/01/2023 Telegraph paper this morning.
General Sir Patrick Sanders will stress the need for the Government to “mobilise the nation” in the event of war with Russia in a speech on Wednesday.
Along with what you have said, and this ! plus other entanglements the UK armed services are involved in, its safe to say that things might become somewhat uncomfortable concidering our lack of personnel(cutbacks).
My question is this, what does the Gov gain by all these cutbacks and lack of funding ?
What is there agenda ?
Who has the Gov under there Thumb ?

Mobilise the nation??? I know of few people who would fight for the nation this govt or previous ones have given us.

I don’t agree with no viable opposition. They do a good job at questioning the government and holding them to account. The issue is our media is very biased and doesn’t report it. When a government has a 80 odd seat majority there isn’t much the opposition can do. Tomorrow sunak could declare that no more elections will occur and the Conservatives would rule as sole party and assuming his MPs vote for their meal ticket there is nothing anyone could do about it. Joy of first past the post politics you can get 40% of the vote but have 100% of the power.

The opposition are led by the victor meldrew(starmer) of u.k. politics

He lacks personality, but he has a proven track record of leading complex organisations and turning them around. His a proper leader unlike the clowns we have had recently that don’t lead at all. Whether that will result in positive changes who knows as politicians are politicians and its not a dictatorship.

the problem is getting involved in a civil war…and ending up trying to run and hold a county in which everyone wants you to sod off…targeting and destroying Houthi capacity to attack shipping..ok…an ill defined war with the Houthi will, sap resources, sap will in the public and be used as a political warfare opportunity by our enemies….we would be falling into a trap set by our enemies.

Exactly, shades of Iraq spring to mind. And after Afghanistan, It’s the last thing the US would want, another long drawn out ground war.

Perhaps David Cameron could oversee it

It’s like Israel, these people have been at war with each other decades, it’s not a new problem. The world has turned a blind. Eye on it. But now that it’s hitting the stock exchange, it’s deemed important.

It’s not really his call either way. It comes down to what the US want to do. If they continue air strikes so will we, if they commit ground forces (they wont) so will we. All PM seem to want to look big on the world stage. We don’t however have the capability to do it alone, so will mirror the US.

then we WILL NEED OUR ASSAULT SHIPS to put them on the ground.

Not really, the only way ground forces would be deployed is if the yeman government supported it and that would open up airports to ship troops in and ports.

Don’t be daft. How would we maintain a bridgehead over the beach in Yemen??? Too many people living in the past here.

The whole country is a beach

What an idiotic thing to say.

I like it here. Not so happy when a W⚓R calls me an idiot

You dismiss Yemen as just a beach and think failed Ghurkas should be put in the Navy, ignoring the fact that as Hindus (generally) they are forbidden to cross the sea to foreign lands (the kala pandi that causes the loss of social respectability and the putrefaction of cultural chsracter) Perhaps not as taboo as before but you want to put them actually on ships. Yeh, mate, I’m the w@nker….

They do cross the sea to come to the umk to be n trained as soldiers. So make up your mind shouldn’t we use every opportunity to recruit sailors or not?

I have no time for the DEI garbage but it’s important to understand that although many/most people have no time for or understanding of religion it’s important to recognise that in some cultures it *is* important (and in some cultures it’s almost the only thing that is important.)
Crossing the sea could result in a loss of status in the caste system and dispensation was needed to permit it. So although times have changed somewhat, to encourage the adherents of that culture to go to sea as a consolation prize (which is what it would be seen as) could be seen to be incredibly tactless and disrespectful….potentially.
Caste is still a thing in Nepal and thus in the Gurkhas.
I don’t actually disagree with the idea but I can also see many practical problems. How many Gurkhas would you put on each vessel? What jobs? The Navy is a very technical service.But to extend your idea, would it be better to have a platoon or scattering of Gurkhas in the Marines, Paras or Rangers? Not badged as Gurkhas I emphasise but integrated and badged as Marines/Paras/Rangers.They are all “elite” units that might appeal greatly to them.

Thanks for the informed reply tw*t.

If taking the time and effort to educate and inform myself or acquire skills in order to understand that things aren’t as simple as we’d like them to be makes me a twit then I’ll take that.

The US has got itself involved in too many places support of Israel? Support to Taiwan, maintaining its own huge war machine. The American forces are complaining to Congress about miss overstretch the treasury is making noise for me severe pruning of their fleet so far up to 48 ships have been targeted for retirement before 2026. Congress is not signing off the order for the next ford class carrier. The whole LCS Classes are going, that is where the UK COULD PLAY A BLINDER, BUYING A HALF
DOZEN OF THE FREEDOMS. Now THAT THE GEARBOX Issue HAVE BEEN REPLACED Fixed They ARE PERFORMING WELL WITH THE 4th and 5thbfleetsgetfing them ALREADY BUILT, might negate the need for the same T32

US ships all require more crew than UK versions. Not sure if that’s because the RN is cutting corners or not but it means the crew isn’t there to man US ships when the RN can’t man the ones it has.

The RN makes much more use of automation than USN.

Yep, but what we won’t know until a war breaks out, is if that automation was a good idea or just a cost saving measure. The finding behind the Nordic ships that crashed was that it happened because cctv was used instead of lookouts and that resulted in a reduction in awareness.

no one really has a choice on automation, we use to have 700+ crew on a heavy cruiser. 1500 on a battelship, no one has those numbers now. But its easier to put extra bodies on a ship that exist in a time of war than have no ship existing because we could not afford a crew

Some automation will for sure be a positive and way more efficient. Just a question of it if was all the case. I would imagine that the US would also try and automate as much as possible as they also have numbers issue and cost controls, just at a way higher level. And yet for whatever reason they have decided higher crews are needed. Could be for many reasons not related to war fighting but who knows.

Sadly used to, is long gone.

Watching the news today I think the dance of death has started at the red sea.

And does it far better than anyone else too

The u.s navy has always had overcrwed their shil

Yep, I just don’t know why. They have their own budget constraints so there will be a reason for it. No idea what their thinking is. All we know is the UK uses less.

And crew them with….who????

I like the name, “the wake” mate 👍

Nepales. The RN should offer place’s in 5 navy, to all the unsuccessful applications to get the 400 places in the British army. If a small percentage of the ten thousand of them took up the offer, we’d need more ships to put them on!

Monkeys!

The US. aree set to lose up to. 48 sshils by2926! Looks like the Americans are joining the the world that we are stuck in too many jobs, not enough ships and crews.

I hate it that the J.m has allowed itself to be a puppet whose strings are held by the Americans

He doesn’t rule out the endless point of giving the family jewels on the failing Ukraine issue.

no I’m Spartacus

I’m Spartacus

Soon to be unemployed man makes remarks about things he will not be able to influence soon. I don’t know what is worse. Roland Rat or Sir Fence Sitter.

Diane Abbott?

If it’s going to drag out, we should send a CSG,the french, Italian and Spanish should too.

Morning Jim, with the exception of getting rid of of the C130J, the UK’s SF and SF support capability is the one area that’s actually grown instead of declining in defence.

A whole plethora of SF support units have been created, so we are in a good position for Special operations of this type.

Agree, our SF is in a pretty good place, overtime as technology replaces more people in the military we will probably find more and more forces be designated as SF.

my dads brother ‘mick’ reeves was a sargeant in the SAS he’s on wiki and was a bit of a legend within them he used to tell stories about missions carried out all around the world. he joked if he told too many tales they’d put him in the tower.

He spent years in Oman and Yemen said that it wasn’t b worth jack sh*t

Jim agreed however our SF organisations are now running at top speed, with fewer numbers! SFSG are now doing “nearly” the tier 1 jobs which a few years ago was not theirs to do! SF are going at it 24/7 and with a smaller army there’s a smaller recruitment pool, which leads to either less men per selection being “passed” or lower standards to ensure the same number passes! Top lads, hard working but getting a bit threaders from bouncing from one op to the next with little down time! Cheees mate 👍

Morning mate.
Simply because of the amount of operations conducted in sandy places since the early 2000s, plus Sierra Leone.

Example, 18 Sig Reg has a Sqn each for the SAS, SBS, SRR, and SFSG. Previously at the height of the Cold War only 264 and 63 (v) Sqns existed.

If Labour withdraw to Europe and NATO, I fear for those assets too.
Regards air support, 657 AAC was also cut previous to 47.

For me a growth area, as you say, given the importance of the CT and Grey Zone areas, alongside the Rangers and FCF.

I hope I’m wrong.

If Trump comes in a pulls out of NATO labour might have little choice but to focus on Europe, that being said the Red Sea and Middle East is still very much Europe in labours thinking.

Labour wants two thing better relations with the EU and they want to keep high tech jobs rolling. AUKUS and GCAP are the two most important industrial projects in Britain they will be safe.

CSG 28 might not be going to the pacific, other than that not much will change.

Hi Jim.
I’d take that, actually.We need to be in the ME.

Agree, we can live without iPads from Asia but gas from Qatar is pretty vital.

Indeed. I would rather we take over the American role in the Med in the event of a China war than try to show off and put a carrier on the other side of the world.
Practical assistance should be chosen over willy-waving.

The Med is pretty hot right now with the Israel conflict. Syria is still going and Iraq has things happening too. It would be a huge commitment to ‘take over’ from the Americas, requiring far more Typhoons in cypress and probably a carrier on station at all times.

Yes, it would be a big commitment to take over from the US, but entirely achievable, from a NATO perspective.
Not sure why UK should have to do it alone though.
We could put more Typhoons into Akrotiri, along with some US F15s. It’s only about 240nm from Cyprus to Gazaz well within their operating range.
As for carriers, there is the UK, France and Italy who could contribute on a rotating basis. That would free up the US carrier in the Eastern med.
In fact didn’t we just sign some form of cooperative arrangement with the French wrt use of carriers?

Trump isn’t pulling out of nato. If he had any interest in doing that he would have done last time. His all talk, like Mexico paying for the wall.

All true but this is likely to be a different Trump presidency.

He’ll still be the most dangerous thing on the planet.

Morning Daniele, totally agree, it’s a bizzar situation to be in that we massively increase forces that come under the wider SF umbrella, then virtually eliminate it’s specialist transport, like 47 Sqn’s C130’s.

Twenty years back, I regularly shot alongside a 47 Sqn pilot, (whilst obviously never saying where), he quite often used to chuckle and say you simply wouldn’t believe me if I told you were we landed last week!

Loosing 47’s specialist capability was a mistake, one that will bite us on the arse, of that I am sure.

One can only summise they are heavily reliant on USAF SOCOM assets these days.

It was imbecilic, in my view. One of our gold standard assets ( UKSF ) that are in demand, appreciated by the US, with a world wide reputation. So we ditch their enablers.
No point going into the Atlas debate again, it’s been done to death and like every other dwindling resource can not be in two places at once nor properly replace Hercules in its niche 47 role.

Absolutely, apart from its physical size, you only have see an A400 flying low tactical profiles, to realise you hear it well before you see it, it makes one hell of a racket!

Hardly conducive to sneaking its an unfriendly country, landing on a road somewhere to pick up/drop off assets, something 47 sqn used to excel at….

We need to buy a dedicated fleet of 12 C130J’s for 47sqn, perhaps along with the ‘gunship light’ kit, of wing mounted targeting and rear door mounted bushmaster.

Agree, in an ideal world.

Buy a fleet of airplanes that were just sold!? Sounds so illogical it will probably happen actually.

This is the time to have still have had tornado l.

Just about every decision the , the U.K has made over the last forty years has come back to bite us

Hmmmme

So if we withdraw for these operations and become ‘good Europeans’ then how precisely are our LNG supplies going to efficiently get to us?

There is only so much tanker capacity in the world and that allows for so many ship miles per annum.

If you are always taking the long way round the number of journeys declines, supply falls, prices go up.

OK ATM USA is exporting lots but given how insular their thinking is it is a worry.

Also the idea that UK gas is all exported – there are significant transit costs in shoring it offshore. So having domestic production does depress prices. It was one of the really odd things in the gas price crisis – UK had more gas than it could force down the interconnection France. So it actually made no sense that domestic prices went up so much.

If you read what he wrote he is very much in favour of the UK staying in the Middle East.

Sport should have been clearer I was referring to Labour’s ‘defence’ policy…….

I think we may need to break out the broomsticks soon.

SB, I knew you were. I know by now after all these years we share the same scepticism over what Labour might do.

Do labour have a defence policy? I wonder what bit is.

He knows, Jim. That’s not how I took his reply. 👍

Officially the manifesto has not been released, there are strands at the moment but Starmer is basically saying nothing and letting the Tories destroy themselves.

Funny how the MOD trumpets the multi national exercises but we are against the nation kof a combined European defence organisation

Spot on mate, the supporting arms are now, and going to be supporting a smaller “teeth” arm within SF. Previous commitments have forced an increase of these groups but with a reducing army and a reduced perceived operations area, there is a reducing need and a reduced recruitment pool, for all SF organisations. And as I have alluded to in another reply, I am fully aware that SFSG role has increased, albeit quietly and not quite publicly, to a more pro active tier 1 type activity in which it was not initially intended for! But the blokes are good and loving it! And hello mate, hope you are well, long time no waffle. I’ve not contributed much recently new job, not much time 👍

Hello my friend.
I’d noted that, but had seen you post occasionally.
As always..Respect.

And you 👍

Air support was the harrier and tornado bread and butter job they’d have been perfect for the Yemen.

I don’t think Harrier would get anywhere near to Yemen without carriers, and I doubt Oman would give permission to use its territory. Tornado, I agree, another cut where the capability has been replaced, but not the aircraft.

supporting anybody against britain should be made a dangerous game indeed it might notbe too long before our sights are trained on them. as they should have been years ago. they’re no different to saddam hussein.

Let’s hope unlike 2001, and the Talibs we get the job done and leave! We should have left Afghan in no later than 2003 as AQ, who were the real enemy not the Taliban, had moved back to East Africa by then mate! And agreed with the drone coverage, atm little need for SF boots on the ground doing surveillance as we have plenty of tech stand off assets to do the work!

A USMC gator carrier would be fine for this job. Just as QEC would be.

USN may well request RN provide a QE class carrier for duty sometime during 2024, either in the Eastern Med or in/around Red Sea. If that proves to be the case, believe USMC/USN would be obligated to provide all support deemed necessary, including, but not limited to: squadron(s) of F-35Bs, any necessary tanker and ISTAR assets, solid stores vessel(s), surface escort(s), and an SSN. Believe Eastern Med to be a more probable request at the moment, since it would be a deterrence mission to reduce stress on USN in Euro-Atlanric theater. Speculate that this is the type of scenario originally envisioned for this cooperative venture. 🤔

If the USN is providing all the assets for a CSG, they can provide the actual carrier itself. Even if it’s an LHA with F-35’s.

May be able to accomplish same effect w/ multiple LHA/LHD, if available, but a single vessel will not have the same capacity as a big deck carrier. If selected for this mission, would anticipate a complement of 24-36 F35Bs.

There was design work done on this early in relation to the performance of the Invincible class over Bosnia and it was found to be too small to significantly dominate a region. It was one of the driving forces for making the Queen Elizabeth this size it is.

I think that that is the point Chris, the US are severely stretched in terms of CVN availability. They need the pressure easing, there are 4 other NATO carriers (including the French), which, don’t appear to be doing much of the burden sharing.
Yes a US CVN has far more capability than the others, but an increase in fighters out of Akrotiri could offset that.

Yes, USN has allowed multiple deficits to develop which need to be addressed, especially in the case of coordinated, simultaneous actions in different theaters by multiple opponents. USAF will be able to address some, but not all, maritime issues. Firmly believe a crisis is coming which will require all hands on deck, the only question is precisely when.

The USA has plenty of aircraft and enough escorts, they are shot on carrier hulls especially large ones. That’s why we need to step up, that’s what QE class was built for, that’s why it’s can operate US aircraft as well as our own.

We are short on aircraft and escorts.

👍

…Euro-Atlantic…🙄

I posted something further up, but agree the Eastern med would be the more likely scenario.
A Sqn or two of Typhoons and the same for F15SE out of Akrotiri, and a rolling deployment of UK, Italian and French carriers would/should suffice imo.
Am of the firm belief that the rest of NATO (maritime assets) should be stepping up to assist in any way they can to alleviate the pressures on the USN.
Would go a long way to redressing the notion that we rely to much on the US(which we do).
The US always has a SSN in the Med, in this instance don’t think it is required unless Mad Vlad sends something out of Northern Flt. Italian/Spanish SSKs should be able to accomplish whatever is required in those waters.

👍 (Suspected but couldn’t confirm USN permanently assigns a SSN to the Med.)

Would be a good all round solution.

👍

Agree

Agreed and to be honest the Red Sea/ gulf of Aden, probably does not need more that 12 F35Bs to manage..The Eisenhower is probably better placed to act as a stabiliser around the eastern Mediterranean as that is were its very hot at present.

The UK did after all invest in these carriers for a reason and that reason is occurring…I think people will being to ask valid questions around what is the point if we do not deploy them…the set piece deployments are all lovely, but the point of a set piece deployment is to show capacity and deter….it defeats the object of the set piece deployments if you don’t then deploy when there is actually a kinetic conflict as that simply shows you don’t actually have either the capability or will…which breaks the deterrent model and makes the set piece deployments essentially a waste of money and pointless…we did not spend 10 billion pounds so the navy could make the odd trip to the pacific and wave its wily at china.

“QE class with 24 F35 onboard is more capable than a Nimitz class with 40 F18 onboard.”

Downright comical. No it’s not.

What’s the exchange rate at red flag between F35 and 4th Gen aircraft, 20.1

Not a big difference, but they carry 48 F-18E/Fs (or mix with F-35Cs) plus a squadron of EA-18Gs plus 4 E-2 AWACs planes. I think the QE could be surged to 48 aircraft as well – but in the 80s nimitz classes normally deployed with over 70 fighter/strike aircraft (they weren’t multi-role though which meant they needed more on board). Im curious if they would ever surge with 70-80 aircraft in the future if a war broke out in the pacific. i’d love to see how that looked.

i know during the iraq war they turned some of their LHD assault ships into light carriers with 20 harriers aboard and left the USMC helos on shore (normally they deploy with 6 F-35s or harriers)

Would have been good to have ocea with the treated deck to allow the F 35. To operate from it.

You would only get 2 or 3 F35Bs on the deck of Hms Ocean! A F35B is bigger, occupying 15% more by area, but more than twice the weight of a Harrier!
So the deck would need to be reinforced.

Indeed, as the U.S. pointed out it does actually need to preserve the reactor fuel in its carrier fleet…at present the can only refuel around one carrier every 6-7 years..where as it planned for refuels to take around 3 years…Stennis started in 2021 and Reagan is due to start in 2029….then we go to the fords….The Ford itself is still not really up to high intensity ops ( it’s catapult still fails after 500 launches) the Kennedy is not due to be delivered until 2025 so operational readiness is not until 2026/27 if nothing slips…the original plan was for it to be in service for 2018…so the USN is around 8-9 years behind on its carrier recapitalisation..this is a mix of technical delay as well as the fact the U.S. decided it would go to a sustainable 10 carrier model then changed its mind and now wants a 12 carrier model after freaking out about china. The reality is the UK carriers are needed for western carrier opps..until the U.S. can get itself up to 12 carriers in 2040ish time frame.

I believe the 10 carrier decision was primarily based on the assumption of A) America Class standing in as lightning carriers and B) Queen Elizabeth class rotating into the 5th fleet area.

It will take decades to reverse if ever given the cost and time of building Ford class. The US would be better off building more America class.

That’s not really true Patrick..the USN changed the metric to suit the failure and try and hide the problem..the DOT@E ( director of test and evaluation for the DOD) made or very clear that changing how you measure and report something does not change the problem and the DOT@T we’re going to keep holding the navy to account for the failure rate ( which is still as far as any report I have seen still every 600 or so sorties)…as of June 2023 the DOT@E still held the catapult as a primary risk to the carrier…and was firmly ignoring the USN changing the metrics.

the congressional research service has a good paper that noted and explains all this…on the” Navy Ford class aircraft carrier programme background and issues for congress..Dec 2023.

thanks, i’ll read more into it.

Good evening Mr Spanker,
A question for Mr GOOGLE me thinks!

Agree the best way to show the use of the carriers to the British public is having them protect shipping coming to the Uk from attack..the best way to send a deterrent message to china,Iran, Russia etc is to have the carrier working in a kinetic opp…not saving it for a world tour….

Agreed. I think it was called TARANIS at the time which turned into a demonstrator. And guess what, after turning out to be a great success, the funding for phase 3 was pulled.

All very cutting edge at the time and most probably still is.

TARANIS was a technology demonstrator. It was never intended to enter operational service.

As per the original Plan.

Flight testing

“On 25 October 2013, the UK Ministry of Defence revealed that initial flight tests had already taken place. Ground tests were conducted in 2010 and flight trials occurred in 2013. The MoD did not officially comment on the Taranis until the initial trials programme had been completed.

On 5 February 2014, BAE revealed information on the Taranis’ flight tests. The UCAV’s first flight occurred on 10 August 2013 at Woomera Test Range in South Australia. This flight lasted for approximately 15 minutes. A second sortie was launched on 17 August, and subsequent flights surpassed expectations for the airframe, flying at various speeds and heights for as long as one hour. By 2014, the Taranis’ development costs had reached £185 million, compared to £140 million as originally projected. The Taranis is planned to be operational “post 2030” and used in concert with manned aircraft.”

“The drone above, called the Taranis, is one of the most cutting-edge drones in production. Capable of reaching speeds of more than 700 mph, it could come and go without anyone on the ground noticing it, but for the sound of its sonic boom.”

Taranis was a Prototype design Concept…. It’s not being produced.

Hello Frank, I know, The funding for it stopped.

Initially, it was designed as a UCAV to fly autonomously or as a Loyal Wingman and to be operational around 2030 with the RAF.

GOV.UK 2009

“Taranis has been designed to be an unmanned, stealthy autonomous combat aircraft ultimately capable of delivering weapons to a battlefield in another continent.

it will be able to hold an adversary at continuous risk of attack; to penetrate deep inside hostile territory, find a target, facilitate either kinetic or non kinetic influence upon it, assess the effect achieved, and provide intelligence back to commanders.

Originally valued at £124.5 million, the contract has been uplifted under separate approvals to £142.5 million and extended by about a year to accommodate an additional programme of work with a wider scope.

This utilises the Taranis air vehicle to provide further outputs with wider exploitation into manned fast jet aircraft and includes additional risk mitigation.

The system will be comprehensively and extensively ‘flown’ on the ground, which will be a stepping stone to ensure that the system progresses into its flight testing phase in a safe and low-risk manner.

Flight trials will not take place in the UK, but will be conducted in safe designated test areas under close supervision.”

I believe the Nazi comments attributed to Gerbals were in 1943 after the Hamburg raid.

The British did try and replicate Hamburg again but failed to produce another fire storm then switched their attention to Berlin which was largely a waste of time.

By the time of Dresden German moral was largely irrelevant, much of the country was already occupied and it was clear the Nazis would fight to the end.

Thanks Jim for correcting my dodgy memory I knew I’d heard it somewhere just couldn’t remember the exact details

regards

but apart from those…. 😉
Although Im not too sure of the 1st one…still I suppose there weren’t camel borne anti aircraft guns available

Three of those examples are Iraq, which I believe is partly where we are still bombing ISIS. 100 years of bombing. Unfortunately that illustrates what can happen if you don’t change will and only change ability. ISIS attacks were down again last year, but as soon as we stop, the clock starts ticking to the next flare up.

Not that I have any handy alternatives to offer. If kicking the can down the road is all we have…

Sometimes all you can do at that time is reduce capacity…the whole issue of the Houthi and wider groups is a bigger problem that has developed over decades and been very mismanaged my many different groups for their own gains..that needs both a massive political warfare approach ( heart), giving people better options for a good life ( mind) and blowing the crap out of our intractable enemies….(in the end some people will always hate and violence is inevitable)…all you can do is try and reduce the level and frequency of violence with good policy, politics warfare, making as many people as happy as possible with making them better off and making the rest as scared as possible with explicit deterrent.

Wow are you quoting wiki as a reliable source 😀

So you expect more than 30000 air attacks to not have some with serious mistakes?

“Between 8,214 and 13,125”

It is ludicrous to use numbers to a precision of 4 and 5 significant figures as the lower and upper limits over a range of almost 5000 it MIGHT indicate a lack of reliability. It certainly says that the source does not understand maths.

Ethnically I identify as Welsh (Ancient Briton-99%), although I was born and live in England. So of the 2-3 million Welsh, I am now an ethnic minority in the UK, Mainstream BBC content in England contains no Welsh content; no Welsh history; no Welsh culture. It is therefore not surprising there is no meaningful patriotic content – be it military events or other important topics outside of the BBC’s “narrative.” They have also dropped “Ukraine” and coverage of the actual war there, like a hot potato. Shame on them and no wonder UK military have a recruitment crises.

Something that helps capture the mood of some of what I am on about and woke issues, I feel is covered in the excellent film: “American Fiction,” Both main actors also deserve Oscars as does the bravery of the film itself to cover some of these subjects.

It’s been like this for years – certainly post WWII. It is not just a creeping malaise. Let’s face it lots of people, especially those in power, have no idea of the UK’s history and capability, and are also – frankly – thick. There is also another component, as the late Alan Clarke MP said in his diaries about his time in Defence and the Foreign Office: “there are people here working actively, 24/7, to undermine the UK and her interests.”

I agree your point about history. Those in power select the school history curriculum so as to reinforce their position. My own opinion is that there is not enough emphasis on the early middle ages, the period where England, Scotland and Ireland came into being as ( Christian) nation states: Aethelstan, McAplin and Brian Bru.
As regards how long we have suffered from our malaise; i would date it from the English civil war; the time when we tore ourselves apart. Nations go through bereavement just like individuals. Empire was how we kept busy doing something useful with the anger of bereavement. We are healing now; finally coming to terms with our lost love; sifting the mistakes from the good we did and rebuilding ourselves better than new 🙂
That is unless you are the sad National Trust who seem unable to ‘move on’ and think we should blame ourselves for the actions of our ancient ancestors.

Yes, the politics of history and how we selectively interpret it is a dangerous thing.

I myself would like to see schools study these Isles and their people. Especially the origins. How we all used to come together in ancient times for a Winter festival, Scotland pre-Scotti (Govan in Glasgow used to be basically Welsh!). All children should be made to watch the films of Leslie Howard – a true patriot of these Isles.

👍🇬🇧

As usual, the number of C2 vehicles is an eye opener compared to infantry carriers, which must surely be priority given how few mechanized infantry Bns we will have left after Warrior.

“The first prototype of the Challenger 3 main battle tank (MBT) will begin trials in the coming weeks, Janes learnt on the first day of Defence iQ’s International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2024 conference being held in London from 22 to 25 January.

The MBT will feature Epsom armour and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ Trophy-MV (Medium Vehicle) armour protection system (APS), a fully digitised turret, and Rheinmetall’s 120 mm L55A1 smoothbore gun, which conducted its first firing in 2023.

The UK’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organisation announced on 18 January that it had awarded Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) a contract for a new modular armour system for the Challenger 3. The system was designed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and was jointly developed with RBSL.

Initial integration trials were conducted in 2023, and RBSL will test, manufacture, and integrate the new armour into the Challenger 3.”

Today @ JANES

Brilliant. Pity we’re only having 2…..(!)

I’m not sure but clearly possible.

“The BOXER tracked was developed to meet current international requirements and addresses the need for a small logistics footprint, low costs and a simple digital operating concept. More than 20 mission modules are already available thanks to the interface commonality with the wheel-based BOXER system.”

Well lets hope we get some then.

Like. Being a true multi role platform with air dominace capability. Along with StormShadow, Brimstone, Paveway 4, Litening 5 targeting/recce pod. ASRAAM, Meteor.