If a warship leaves for Gibralter, Liverpool or anywhere else it is loaded with missiles.
Its what they are and what they do, it isnt like a policeman asking permission of a head of county force for permission to get the key to open the safe in the boot of the car.

YOU'RE A B.E. ENTHUSIAST.. BE ENTHUSIATIC THEN..... You sound like a B.E. depressionist..

I wasn't talking to you.....but as you called... please do us all a huge favour and go play on the railway line, preferably as a train is coming.

Ha ha, Russia TV, all we need now is a dose of the dreaded Fox news.

Well I still think this year is Irans turn, Yanks are out of Iraq and Afghanistan, it's all falling into place nicely for them.

Also interesting, listening to some top Army guy about our capabilities regarding the Faulkland Isles, he reckons we have to keep them out or we have no chance of repeating what we did before if they do get in due to lack of harriers and aircraft carriers.

well well, so it is coming home to roost then.
The army needs the money to stay in Afghanistan, the air force needs the money to keep the skys clear, the navy needs the money to protect the other two. But we only have enough £'s for one of the three.

It was understood well over 2 years ago that the navy would never be able to replicate what they managed in the Falklands in 1982. That they are sending a Daring class, similar to the US Aegis series of destroyers, is all they have. One ship
And we may need that back to sit in the Thames to provide support for the Olympics.

In 1973/4 I sent a letter to every RN ship on the Navy List, which was just over 300. Today it would probably be something like 20% of that, two thirds of them would be preparing for refit, in refit, or coming out of refit and in training sessions.

A few decades ago we had the Reserve Fleet in trots up rivers in the South of England. These are all gone and when a ship is withdrawn she either goes straight to scrap or fully decommissioned and used as a floating target for rockets or topedoes to see the effect of new weapons.
(The current "float time" of a modern frigate under concerted conventional air attack is no more than 10mins - unless working in concert with a team of other ships such as in the Falklands.)

So from that statement alone wouldn't it be better to deploy old ships as decoys to give the newer stuff an extra few minutes to survive?

Whatever you are trying to say, and it is unclear to me. Countries are looking at our weaknesses and they may take advantage.

Yeah the British should just give up and let Argentina take the Island. Make a lot of posters on here happy

and you have only just thought about that ? ?

and as I said, we have no older stuff any longer.
within 2 weeks of the Nimrod getting the chop in the Defence Review they were having the top secret stuff removed and started cutting them up.
OK the frame is still a Comet frame, but heavily beefed up and updated etc etc. Probably only bettered in performance by the US AWACS, Nimrod was a multi-capability aircraft.

In times of peace the needs of the young and elderly are of more interest to the taxpayer, until all of a sudden the wolf is at the door and the forces are blamed for having no capability.
We may have to think the unthinkable and be a founder member of the EU combined forces. Just don't let Germany try to take control......

we never, ever, do things to make a lot of posters on here happy

over 900 men gave their lives in the 74 days of 1982
http://www.falklandswar.org.uk/

Well it wouldn't bother me either way, but, it is clear from the news reports that the Argie's are sabre rattling and may just make a move. I wouldn't be able to predict the outcome despite what they say about this modern ship they have sent there, but this military guy knew what was what, and he said if they get passed this ship, Faulklands will be gone from UK control.

Mostly Argentinian.

Not sure who said it but the ship bound for the South Atlantic "loaded with missiles" is the HMS Dauntless, which is a guided missile destroyer so lets hope it is or its gonna be one wasted trip otherwise!


Since she is considered as one of the most powerful destroyers in the world (as is most of her class) and she can take out multiple targets at a range of around 250 miles and her radars are capable of detecting up to 1000 targets at the same range I have to say, its a pretty good decision to send it, despite the fact this deployment has been on the cards for quite a while!

But don't let facts get in the way of any handwringing, I assume the same people who say we are going to get beaten by the Argies are the ones who run around the forum saying Britain is a broken and bankrupt country... carry on.

Do you really swallow that ?

Possibly this one ship has capability to take out anything the Argies can put up,...... but do you not think that we may just happen to have a few up to date missile systems based on the islands, the odd aircraft or two and even a nuke sub lurking in the area just in case ?