Fingers crossed then.

[Not Connard Sage]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/04/british-army-would-exhaust-capabilities-after-two-months-of-war-mps-told

Obviously it depends on how one defines ‘all out war’ and who the opposition is.
In a Russkies rolling across the German border scenario, I rather think our armed forces would be severely deplenished in about a fortnight.

…and my spill chucker doesn’t recognise ‘deplenished’ as a word.

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Jim Webster]

It’s interesting to watch. After all, in the 1980s in the UK we were spending 4% of GDP on defence. I do wonder what will be cut to pay for defence spending. At the moment we’re spending as much on aid to Ukraine as we are on Agriculture and Environment. Indeed the whole net zero issue is now up in the air, as what do we have to bribe Russia and China with to get international agreement?

https://jimssfnovelsandwargamerules.wordpress.com/

[Guy Farrish]

To keep this a ‘wargaming’ related response: I think there is a great planning game to be made from a Cabinet/MOD/Cobra/JIC meeting on ‘What Do We Do Next?’ set in the early 1990s in the light of events in Eastern Europe.

Your mission, and you will choose it or you can go to the Falklands on a permanent deployment, is to deliver the optimal (and by ‘optimal’ I mean lowest possible cost) level of future armed forces to meet the NATO obligation (don’t worry it will be redundant soon) and deliver an effective counter terror force under the nuclear umbrella.

Of course we can determine how your agile, rapid response, modern, swift, light infantry based force will fare over the next thirty five years by testing it against a calendar of world events.

Events may not be as they played out in real life. There will be a world threat index to determine random geopolitical challenges. But don’t worry. Your forces will be able to cope with whatever is thrown at them. Rest assured dear Francis Fukuyama has told us that history is over and western capitalist democracy has won. So that’s all right then. Let’s embrace the peace and enlighten those few trouble spots around the globe through economic measures.

Nobody will fight an armoured pitched battle anywhere again, never mind Europe, so do we need all those expensive AFVs? We can ramp up ammunition production as and when for small scale stuff, no need for huge expensive stockpiles. Just in time works for civilian logistics, it will work for small scale military conflicts, mostly peacekeeping. Special Forces? Fine. Power projection? What for? Where? Surely no need for a blue water navy any more?

RAF? Why?

I want to see a real peace dividend here. Out of the box thinking on delivery through fast, fierce, formidable forces at lightest financial footprint.

We could call it Options or something. Options For Change maybe? That sounds nice and positive doesn’t it?

[Author]

Posts