So, the internal MoD review has gone through, and guess what? The budget cuts are mahousive. I'm not going to go into all of them, partially because i've only heard the navy side of the story, and also because i'm a lazy sod, but I thought i'd bring up a few points...
Firstly, the arcraft carriers are being stripped of their fighter jets. The harriers are all being taken out of service, with few or no plans to implement the Joint Strike Fighters on the two new Supercarriers... so, instead of Aircraft carriers, we have... a couple of very large and pretty useless boats.
Of course, since they have no aircraft on them, the carriers are rather useless anyway, so they're also taking the Ark Royal out of commision ASAP. That'l leave us with one "aircraft" carrier until the supercarriers come out, however I guess without the aircraft to go on this lone carrier, or the supercarriers, it's a bit of a moot point how many of them we have anyway.
My last big issue is that they're decomissioning most, if not all, of the Nimrod MRA4, and they're planning on scrapping the less up-to-date MR2's in the near future as well. While not technically a navy issue, the main/sole purpose of the Nimrods was as an anti-sub and anti-ship aircraft in combat zones. Without them, our ships will likely be a much easier target for enemy naval activity. Combine this with the fact that we no longer have air support from the Carriers, and you've pretty much destroyed the whole purpose of the navy, except for the Trident Nuclear Deterrent.
So, i'm pretty obviously pretty pissed off at this, not least of all because it might mean several members of my family losing their jobs due to mass redundancies (Also a confirmed objective as a result of the review). Anyhow, how do you guys feel about it, and does anyone have any of the scoop from the other ends of the spectrum, in the Army and Airforce? (Burgess, i'm looking at you =P).
- Blob
Firstly, the arcraft carriers are being stripped of their fighter jets. The harriers are all being taken out of service, with few or no plans to implement the Joint Strike Fighters on the two new Supercarriers... so, instead of Aircraft carriers, we have... a couple of very large and pretty useless boats.
Of course, since they have no aircraft on them, the carriers are rather useless anyway, so they're also taking the Ark Royal out of commision ASAP. That'l leave us with one "aircraft" carrier until the supercarriers come out, however I guess without the aircraft to go on this lone carrier, or the supercarriers, it's a bit of a moot point how many of them we have anyway.
My last big issue is that they're decomissioning most, if not all, of the Nimrod MRA4, and they're planning on scrapping the less up-to-date MR2's in the near future as well. While not technically a navy issue, the main/sole purpose of the Nimrods was as an anti-sub and anti-ship aircraft in combat zones. Without them, our ships will likely be a much easier target for enemy naval activity. Combine this with the fact that we no longer have air support from the Carriers, and you've pretty much destroyed the whole purpose of the navy, except for the Trident Nuclear Deterrent.
So, i'm pretty obviously pretty pissed off at this, not least of all because it might mean several members of my family losing their jobs due to mass redundancies (Also a confirmed objective as a result of the review). Anyhow, how do you guys feel about it, and does anyone have any of the scoop from the other ends of the spectrum, in the Army and Airforce? (Burgess, i'm looking at you =P).
- Blob
