The Winding Down Of The Not So Great Britain.

[gulliver1]

The UK probably is the laughing stock of the world and has lost any military clout it thought it had.The state of it's Navy aircraft carriers is a joke. HMS Queen Elizabeth had to be pulled from a NATO Exercise because of a broken propeller shaft .HMS Prince of Wales broke down for the same fault in 2022 one day out from setting sail to show the flag to the US, The same vessel flooded twice in it's first year of service.

[nicebloke1]

Its the second time HMS QE has broken down.  It hardly got out the dock the first time. This time RUST near the main shaft, plus the shaft its self. Must be that steel we rely on from china. This is surposed to be a state of the art war ship, god help us. The boat people are having less trouble on the high seas. 

[vulcan42]

As usual gulliver you pick out what you consider is the most detrimental to the UK. 

To take just one example,of which there are many, the American aircraft carrier the Gerald R Ford, was delayed by nearly two years before entering service because of systems not working properly.

The French and Russians also had build problems with their carriers, are you laughing at these three countries?

 

[nicebloke1]

Not to worry Liz will come up with an Idea, like dock it, gut it, and use for a immigrant hotel. :0)

[Prudie]

And do you know why gulliver? Because for decades the lily livered lefties like you wanted huge cuts to the Defence budget and got them.

[anneasquith]

" lily livered lefties " lol, sounds like a tongue twister :-)

[theshedman]

As vulcan42 says the Americans haven't always had the best of luck with their carriers either.  They had one of the worse accidents on the USS Forrestal which caught fire and killed over 100 of it's crew and injured many more so a prop failing is quite small in comparison.   But if it isn't slagging off the UK gulliver and a few others won't be interested.

[ToraToraTora]

....and I am not allowed to label gulliver et al what they demonstrate they are every day.

[ToraToraTora]

I find this post very offensive and yes I have reported it and complained. I doubt anything will happen because I am one of the ones that it is ok to offend and I am not allowed to retaliate either. Good ole double standards once more.

[ladybirder]

Why is Gulliver allowed to attempt to bring misery every day to the Brits on this site?

Read this quickly before it disappears.

[youngmafbog]

Rife today TTT.

 

Only the ** are allowed their view on here, you should know that by now.

[JACKSON-REACHER]

Prudie,

For 14 years the Defence budget has been set by the Conservative Government. Any huge cuts have been overseen by Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak, without any input from lilly livered lefties.

[gulliver1]

JacksonReacher 13.40. You beat me to it , so I will have to give you best answer for that one

[JACKSON-REACHER]

// The UK currently spends slightly over 2% of GDP on defence each year, amounting to some £45 billion in 2021, or about £660 per person. This has fallen substantially over time. In the mid-1950s, the UK spent almost 8% of GDP on defence. That fell to about 4% in 1980, 3% in 1990, and around 2% today. //

All Governments whether Conservative or Labour, have seen cutting military spending as an easy saving.

[Prudie]

^ only because of public pressure, Defence budget has been cut in real terms since at least the 90s if not before.  

And Gulliver if you want to appear intelligent on these matters it's:

'its Navy aircraft' and 'its first year of service'

I can be mean and petty too

 

[theshedman]

Of the 30 countries in NATO only 10 of them spend 2% of GDP or more on defence and we are one of them.  We also contribute one of the highest amounts to the total amount given towards defence.  We are in the top 3.  Yes lower than we were but then still one of the best supporters of NATO.

 

[gulliver1]

There are also concerns that the UK has now become too reliant on the US For it's maritime defence and security and will be left very vulnerable if Donald Trump makes a come back to the white House.

[theshedman]

So does the rest of Europe gulliver.  We have the largest Navy in Europe apart from Russia and only France comes close to us.

[ToraToraTora]

We are still 5th in the world, I'd say that's not too bad out of 195.

[Lie-in King]

^...Or 9th, depending on where you get your info & how that info is collated -

http://tinyurl.com/5n8curve

The OP annoys the bejesus out of me, but so do the users that dive in to batter him.  Like it or not, everything he said in the OP is true & it doesn't matter if other countries' ships have broken down.  If you care - as I do - about the UK's ability to muster a Navy worth its salt, then paying attention to the shortfalls in spending & manufacture should be paramount.

[ToraToraTora]

LIK that's just the navy, we are 5th when you talk about everything: https://www.pw.live/exams/defence/top-10-powerful-countries-in-the-world-by-military-strength/