The slow, painful death of UK armed forces

[CountDeMoney]

That was a credible and proportionate response to terrorism.

[derspiess]

To hell with Spain

[Ed Anger]

To hell with Spain

Damn right.

[Barrister]

The US would have to intervene.  You owe them for Iraq.

We don't fight colonial wars.

They'd call upon the Commonwealth anyway;  hell, I think the Canuckistani Navy is larger than the RN now.

No, it isn't.

And that's the Royal Canuckistani Navy to you, bub.

[Valmy]

They proved a bit more capable in the second Chechen war, the Dagistan thing, and the invasion of Georgia.

Actually they proved completely incompetent and devoid of discipline.  A mob really.

[Neil]

They proved a bit more capable in the second Chechen war, the Dagistan thing, and the invasion of Georgia.

Actually they proved completely incompetent and devoid of discipline.  A mob really.

But they won, and victory counts for everything.  No style points are awarded for defeat.  The unruly Russian mob conquered northern and western Georgia, while the modern, disciplined Americans got chased out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

[FunkMonk]

[mongers]

You guys act as if this is something new, the last lots of labour and conservative governments have been ineptly gutting the armed forces for 30 odd years.

IMHO the post war British armed forces reached their high watermark of capabilities vs commitments in the late 70s. The retreat from empire was all but complete and we were prepared to do out bit if the cold war went hot.


Also iirc at the time the best part of 30,000 troops were in Northern Ireland. 

[Ed Anger]

The British Army of the Rhine.

[mongers]

The British Army of the Rhine.

B.A.O.R. 

Yeah I've know quite a few people who'd have had rather short lives if the Soviet had come over those plains.

And the plans for the Territorials to go over and occupy interlinking fortified anti-tank villages were rather nifty.   

[Scipio]

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, is due to outline cuts of up to 20,000 regular troops.

The government argues the changes, drawn up by Lieutenant General Nick Carter, will provide the basis of a smaller but more flexible Army in the future.
The cuts in Army 2020 will be the biggest reforms to the Service since 1904 reducing it to 82,000 men, its smallest size since the Napoleonic Wars.
Five infantry and two cavalry regiments will be lost in the cuts.
Retired infantry officer Charles Heyman said there will be thousands of disappointed soldiers as their regiments "are being assigned to oblivion".
He said nobody wanted to see this reorganisation but there was a "horrible reality" behind the cuts and the army has to "cut its cloth" to what the country could really afford.

List of Regiments to be cut

3rd Bn The Yorkshire Regiment (Duke of Wellington's)
The "Dukes" originally formed in 1808 and were the first to be named after a commoner, Arthur Wellesley, who became the first Duke of Wellington. The regiment has served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan and suffered five killed when a Warrior tank was blown up in Helmand in March.

2nd Bn Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
The Fusiliers produced the most battalions for frontline service during the First World War.
Six soldiers famously won VCs "before breakfast" at Gallipoli. It took part in both the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars. Soldiers wear a red and white hackle in their beret.

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. (reduced to ceremonial duites)
Formed as 91st Regiment of Foot in 1759. Most notable for their reoccupation of the rebel held "Crater" area in Aden in 1967 under their CO, Lt Col Colin "Mad Mitch" Mitchell.

2nd Bn The Royal Welsh
Trace their roots to South Wales Borderers who won enduring fame and VCs at Rorke's Drift in 1879. First troops into Belfast in 1969. Have a goat as mascot. The Queen is Colonel in Chief.

3rd Bn The Mercian Regiment
Formerly known as the Staffordshire Regiment tracing their history back to 1705. Led the British force in the 1991 Gulf War covering 180 miles in 100 hours in their Warrior armoured vehicles. Prince of Wales is Colonel in Chief.

Queen Royal Lancers
Etched forever in history as the 'Death or Glory Boys' from the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimea War. Cap badge still carries skull and cross bones. Fought in nearly every campaign since Blenheim.

9th/12th Lancers
Prevailed in the last ever lance-on-lance charge in the First World War at Moncel in 1914
Nicknamed 'The Delhi Spearmen' after the Indian Mutiny. Currently deployed in Helmand. Served in the Second Afghan War of 1878.

2nd Royal Tank Regiment
Formed in 1916 when Britain secretly introduced the tank onto the Somme battlefield and has been at the forefront of heavy tank action ever since. Its colours of brown, red green signify unofficial motto of "through mud, blood and the green fields beyond".

Thoroughly disgusting.  And I'm not even about to discuss the current state of the Royal Navy, as that affront to history speaks for itself.

THE TIME TO STRIKE IS NOW BUENOS AIRES

Aside from the Queen Royal Lancers, I detect a distinct contra-competency bias.  Maybe they're finally buying into a united Europe?

[11B4V]

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. (reduced to ceremonial duites)
Formed as 91st Regiment of Foot in 1759. Most notable for their reoccupation of the rebel held "Crater" area in Aden in 1967 under their CO, Lt Col Colin "Mad Mitch" Mitchell.

[Razgovory]

They proved a bit more capable in the second Chechen war, the Dagistan thing, and the invasion of Georgia.

Actually they proved completely incompetent and devoid of discipline.  A mob really.

Compare the Russian conduct in the first Chechen war to the second.  They really got their act together.  The invasion of Georgia was conducted with alarming speed.  There are some interesting reforms going on in the Russian army now.  They are shifting to a more Western professional force rather then a conscript army.

[Josquius]

Pretty sad for the dying tradition but fuck the army. Its an oudated, cold war era, waste of money. From a practical POV the cuts make sense.

I hear these cuts are better than prior ones too. Rather than tiptoing about and slicing little bits from every regiment threatening to make them all useless they've instead done the sensible thing and got rid of some wholesale.

[Zanza]

The British Army of the Rhine.

The last British troops will move out of Germany by 2020.

BFG personnel receive careful briefings in the care
of the local ecology, flora and fauna in all areas
used for training and in the need to abide by
German environmental laws.