Yet more cuts.....

[Chaffers]

Article in the Telegraph about future, very deep, cuts.

It seems to me that the meteriel listed totals far more then the £1 billion listed.

Telegraph article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/04/02/ncuts02.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/04/02/ixportaltop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=15324)

Take the Jags, Harriers and Pumas from the RAF, 2 carriers and a couple of frigates from the RN and a further reduction in big metal cans and all Gazelles and one wonders what is left, if not after this cut, then after the next one. :rolleyes:

Bastards.

[TC27]

The Telegraph has a great track record in accurately reporting upon defence spending.....opps April the 1st was yesterday.

[Mr C Hinecap]

Well - I am away on a week of duty and this hits the papers the day I get back.

I know we get all down about stuff like this, but it seems everyone is going to 'get some' this time.

Let us see if the word 'redundancy' makes them react this time!

[StopStart]

:(

Ah well, and thus it ever was. Whilst I believe nothing, ever, this does seem to confirm most of the rumours that have been doing the rounds of late.

Delighted to see the Telegraph managed to find a "senior civil servant" to talk - gives a little insight into how these important decisions are made....

They can axe the Harriers and then the carriers because there "were no Harrier aircraft to fly off them". Sort of logic my wife comes up with..

We can withdraw Sea King and Puma because "They are very old". We can then sell them a foreign Government because "they still have a lot of life left in them". Using the same logic, can we bin the VC10, C130K, Nimrod, Chinook etc etc? Thought not.

PS. As we are rapidly asserting our place as a Third World Air Force, are we going to be in a position to bid on all these aircraft soon to flood onto the market?

[snafu]

While I'm sure that we are going to see some cuts (sorry, re-prioritisation of existing funding) over the next year or two, I'm not convinced that the Torygraph journalist hasn't just misunderstood some of the existing plans for equipment projects over the next 5-10 years.

All the Harriers, Jags, Sea Kings and Pumas are due to get binned over the next decade(ish), but they are due to be replaced by JSF and SABR respectively. Similarly, the CVS will be phased out as CVF comes on line.

As much as I mistrust politicians of all colours, I cannot believe that the cuts as proposed in the Torygraph article would be considered for more than a couple of microseconds, simply because they would amount to the rape of our Armed Forces. Someone else suggested on another thread that this smells a little like a well-timed leak by someone within the MOD to a sympathetic paper, hoping that the subsequent outcry (if it happens) will put a bit of pressure on the Treasury.

Having said all that, I'm consistently amazed by the lack of any appreciation that the politicians appear to have about the consequences of their proposals, let alone actually carrying them out, so I will watch with interest and more than a little concern.

[Jimlad]

On Wednesday the DT said Ark Royal was going, on Thursday the DT said Vince and Lusty are going.Today lots more are going? Does the defence writer actually know what he is talking about?

I think he has been leaked the worst case scenario list - but a few points include the fact that the RN doesnt have 88 seakings, the GR7 is going out of service anyway - TBRB the GR9 and so it goes.

Methinks this guy is writing out of his journalistic backside.

[Melrin Dip]

We were all in the WR in Portsmouth today looking longingly at the 2 carriers in the basin when I sighted the Torygraph in fine form.

Must be true I thought not like journo's to exagerrate a little.

I then turn to page 10 for the rest of the Article.

Quotes:

'measures still undecided.........end of April.......MoD dept infighting....

I could go on.

It amazes me that some very experienced posters on this forum seem to believe the Tory Press as if they speak gospel truths.

There is absolutely no doubt that some 'realistic' funding decsions are coming. So be it and it would probably be a first in my lifetime.

Those who belive the MPs and Joe Public will pay to bail us ut all the time we completely mess up the accounting really should take one big reality pill. My wife works in education they all talk in exactly the same way.

It takes a lot of fighters to kill a suicide bomber and a lot of nurses to look after the injured.....how would you decide?


:hmm: