The slow, painful death of UK armed forces

[11B4V]

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.

Maneuver damage.... 

[Razgovory]

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.

Okay fine.  Then don't bitch about anyone else's foreign policy.  You get rid of the military, you abdicate any responsibility and say in international affairs.  Don't complain when another country throws around its weight in ways you think are unfair, or there is a war, or an injustice, or a genocide.  You've washed your hands of the whole business.  You want to secede from the world, fine.  Just don't hold little protests, or bitch about war and injustice.  Don't bother the rest of the world with your impotent whining.

[CountDeMoney]

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.

Wrong, Razzie.

Their over-reliance on Airborne and Special Forces to conduct the lion's share of combat action, combined with their extended ramp up in trying to scrape together first-echelon forces to even reach 40,000 troops, tells you how much they suck balls.

And still relying on Soviet-era tactics got the 58th Army punched square in the fucking mouth by the Georgians.  Those boys were smoked.

Not to mention their air operations were less than stellar, considering how one-sided it was.

In short, they're a far cry from their days of being able to shoot the Fulda Gap with the 3rd Shock.  The best they can do is bully a Georgia.

[CountDeMoney]

Okay fine.  Then don't bitch about anyone else's foreign policy.  You get rid of the military, you abdicate any responsibility and say in international affairs.  Don't complain when another country throws around its weight in ways you think are unfair, or there is a war, or an injustice, or a genocide.  You've washed your hands of the whole business.  You want to secede from the world, fine.  Just don't hold little protests, or bitch about war and injustice.  Don't bother the rest of the world with your impotent whining.

I think it's interesting a nation like England, who conducts 95% of its commerce by sea, would decide to go without a Navy for more than a decade.  They have more flag officers than active frigates and destroyers combined.  Thank God Nelson is dead, so he doesn't have to see that.

[Warspite]

They are disbanding my brother's regiment. The bastards. Farewell, the Green Howards.

[HisMajestyBOB]

In short, they're a far cry from their days of being able to shoot the Fulda Gap with the 3rd Shock.  The best they can do is bully a Georgia.

They said the same about Sherman, too. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

They are disbanding my brother's regiment. The bastards. Farewell, the Green Howards.

Yeah, very sad to see such famous regiments passing into history 

But the budget is,,,,,,,what?........a mere £50bn for all 3 services? I can't see that going up till we manage to get the economy off the floor, so harsh decisions were inevitable.

[Brazen]

I talked to some Royal Marines at the Farnborough Airshow last week. From their point of view, most of the cuts will be by natural attrition but they're upset at historical regiments being lost.

They're OK with the Territorial Army taking a more active role as most members are ex-Service anyhow and would know what they're doing (they were getting on a bit so looking to their own futures). However, whereas many employers were happy to take them on when it only involved two weeks' training a year, knowing they're definitely going to the front line three months a year is going to make getting a job very difficult.

They're also pissed off at being called on to do security at the Olympics as LOCOG and G4S cocked up the numbers. Last time they had to cover civilian duty during the fire service strike, some troops came straight off of a year's deployment, having seen their colleagues blown limb from limb, straight into training without having seen their family.

[Admiral Yi]

I have an idea.  Keep the old unit names, but apply them to companies. 

[Josquius]

Okay fine.  Then don't bitch about anyone else's foreign policy.  You get rid of the military, you abdicate any responsibility and say in international affairs.  Don't complain when another country throws around its weight in ways you think are unfair, or there is a war, or an injustice, or a genocide.  You've washed your hands of the whole business.  You want to secede from the world, fine.  Just don't hold little protests, or bitch about war and injustice.  Don't bother the rest of the world with your impotent whining.

err....the entire point of the military changes is to make Britain better at intervening when crap goes down in third world countries. Its only our ability to fight world war 2 all over again which is being removed as ww3 isn't going to happen.

[CountDeMoney]

err....the entire point of the military changes is to make Britain better at intervening when crap goes down in third world countries. Its only our ability to fight world war 2 all over again which is being removed as ww3 isn't going to happen.

I'm sure the Royal Marines will appreciate British Airways' charter service to whatever hellhole they need to be deployed for duty.  Since there's really no navy to take them anymore.

[Josquius]

err....the entire point of the military changes is to make Britain better at intervening when crap goes down in third world countries. Its only our ability to fight world war 2 all over again which is being removed as ww3 isn't going to happen.

I'm sure the Royal Marines will appreciate British Airways' charter service to whatever hellhole they need to be deployed for duty.  Since there's really no navy to take them anymore.

Of course there is. 
Especially considering the navy is in the middle of big upgrades at the moment.

[CountDeMoney]

Of course there is. 
Especially considering the navy is in the middle of big upgrades at the moment.

Yeah, but there's a reason why it's called "2020".  Unfortunately, this is still 2012.

Don't worry, we'll cover your sea lanes for you for the next 8 years.  Just like we do for every other free rider in NATO.

[Josquius]

Even as the navy stands now we've all the transport ships we need for overseas deployment. The French have us covered for carriers if need be.
But the main hope is nothing happens in the next few years so we don't have to blow money on it.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Of course there is. 
Especially considering the navy is in the middle of big upgrades at the moment.

Yeah, but there's a reason why it's called "2020".  Unfortunately, this is still 2012.

Don't worry, we'll cover your sea lanes for you for the next 8 years.  Just like we do for every other free rider in NATO.

Its not really difficult though..........get a positive ID on the bearded fanatic and then blow him up with a drone.....................not exactly the battle of the Atlantic