Should We Be Spending More On Defence?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38172512
Our forces are so depleted these days, we are a sitting duck, so is it time to spend the WSS budget on defence?

[andy-hughes]

TTT - //0.7 * $2.8Trillion = $19.6billion, Buy a few dinghies for that Andy! //

A fair point, I must confess I was not aware of the proportionate amount being so massive.

[Gromit]

Tora,
Most people who find themselves needing Jobseekers Allowance have paid into the system for many years, and are entitled to help when they need it.

[Ninefingers]

The Navy spending on Capital Ships is fairly high, (by capital ships I mean those that are designed to project power)

2 Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers - most advanced on the planet each scheduled to carry 36 F35 Joint Strike Fighters - this is a credible threat vessel and with the technology included makes it far move of a threat than any other carrier system the UK has employed before even HMS Ark Royal (09) The Audacious Class version of Ark Royal.
6 type 45 destroyers
13 type 23 Frigates
The rest of the fleet is made up of support vessels, Minesweepers etc and ofcourse the 4 Vanguard Ballistioc subs and the 6 Astute/4 Trafalgar Attack sub fleet.

The Navy is fit for purpose as is the RAF, our Army sadly is in a very poor state, if defence spending is to increase then the Army needs review first and foremost

[mikey4444]

Netfingers....do you think we could react to another attack on somewhere like the Falklands as well today, as we did all those years ago ?

If I am right here, Britain no longer has any aircraft carriers !

Why, for Gods sake ?

[ichkeria]

Yes.
This is one thing Donald Trump is right on (although perhaps more by accident than anything else, as the downside for us is that he seems to want to shrug his shoulders of responsibility for defending Europe).
Oh say can he have forgotten that it was actually NATO in Europe who came to the aid of the US in Afghanistan?

[Ninefingers]

It's an evaluated threat risk against the credble threats posed by our most likely opponents.

We have no carriers right now but Argentine doesn't have the materiel to be a threat in their own back door never mind against UK forces. I've been there, there is no threat despite their sabre rattling, their orbat wouldn't scare a troop of girl guides.

(as an aside, I found out about this website from an officer I met down there, good man to work for can't always say that about officers)

[ichkeria]

The UK has an aircraft carrier under development does it not?

(If we think our navy is in a state spare a thought for the Russian one, and the much-vaunted Admiral Kuznetsov carrier, which was ridiculously regarded as a threat to Blighty as it chugged through the Channel recently. Most or all of its aircraft have been flown to land bases, and it's been plagued by power failures).