The impossible has happened - Trump has made me a Keir Starmer supporter!

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

'This is not the age of churchill'

Thank God. Fucking orange twat.

Also for anyone confused by some posters wittering about dry dock...

No, HMS Dragon is not in dry dock. It's just in dock.

Doubtless the basin it is in could be made dry, ie drained of all water and the vessel supported by a cradle while works are carried out on the hull, which is what we mean by a vessel being "in dry dock".

But that's not how Dragon is. It's just moored in a dock being loaded.

Certainly possible but less effective and more expensive than an anti missile/ anti drone integrated air defence system.

I only bother saying this because there seem to be a lot of people boldly making statements on stuff they appear to know nothing about. Not even what the words mean.

I'm not a fan of Starmer but pleased with his stance on this at present.

What "stance"?

He's hardly been in one position long enough for it to qualify as a "stance". 🙄

HMS Dragon as of this afternoon, afloat but in a dock getting replenished. Even traveling at full speed it will take 5 to 7 days to get to Cyprus from Portsmouth.

Interestingly senior commanders in the Royal Navy did recommend to the Government that recommend that HMS Dragon be deployed in the area ahead of the attacks:

"The Navy had offered the government the option to preposition a Type 45 ahead of the attack that Trump had telegraphed for several weeks in advance, but planned NATO deployments were deemed the priority. Events in the region are moving fast, and the ship’s arrival could be too late to prevent more damaging attacks on RAF Akrotiri."

Source: https://www.navylookout.com/type-45-destroyer-to-be-sent-to-the-eastern-mediterranean/

Have you looked in the mirror lately @Marmalademorning?

Meh. She is not in dry dock...

Knew something was wrong as I was typing, but takes a while for brain to creak round at this time of night...

Thanks for that article @1dayatatime .

It summarises the situation neatly, though depressingly:

The Royal Navy simply does not have enough ships to sustain vessels on deployment overseas, ready to respond to emergencies as it used to. Instead, it is reduced to prioritising its handful of available ships to assign to the most urgent mission at the expense of other tasks. This situation is not of the RN’s making and is the clear result of successive governments underfunding defence. The crippling in-year budget rounds and small spending increases that barely cover the cost of inflation have all contributed to the precipitous decline.
[...]
The UK needs to recover its hard power and quickly; this cannot be done on the cheap or without a significant increase in funding.

Maintaining a functioning military is a bit like buying insurance, it tends to be skimped on by some.

We’ve allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security. Putin and Trump have jolted us out of that alright.

I think it's pretty clear what I meant and what this thread is about.

A very significant increase in funding. What are the UK population willing to cut to ensure that this happens, if indeed they do want to increase defense spending?

The US is completely broken. Congress did absolutely nothing when Biden was showing signs of dementia. Now Trump is showing signs of early dementia and added to this he is a raging narcissist. Congress could vote to have him removed as he is clearly not fit for the office of the President. They also need to change the constitution to put an age limit on who can serve as President. It is very very scary right now.

You do realise Putin isn’t involved in what is happening right now? The US military has joined Israel in a war with Iran.

And sends signals that the UK is preparing to assist America. Which then invites attacks. There were attacks anyway (probably first from Hezbollah) so now they need to defend. It might have been better to have sent the ship earlier after all but I think that's the only misstep.

Yes but cheaper than the cost of not shooting the drones down I suspect

Well, make of this report what you will:
https://jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-were-told-iran-war-is-for

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi did a lot of evil shit too. Are Iraq and Libya liberal democracies now that we've helped to overthrow them?

The price of electricity in the UK is set by the last generator to be brought online. Which is invariably gas.

The decision to reduce the Type 45 order from twelve to six was taken by a Labour government. Decommissioning several Type 23s early was down to both parties. The fact that there aren't even enough personnel to crew our remaining surface fleet is doen to the Tories though.

It's incredible. He's a fence-sitting ditherer for sure (the sucking-up to Trump last year was embarrassing), but I can't understand why he attracts the hatred he does.

A Sea Viper missile costs £1m. A Shahed drone costs less than $50k. Using a Type 45 to intercept a handful of drones coming out of Lebanon is not sustainable. Besides, it would be better employed keeping shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz open. A third of the world's oil passes through there.

I'm prepared to believe that she might have been more blunt.

Our two new carriers should be safe as they rarely get past the Isle of Wight without breaking down and needing to be towed home.