Should Britain remain a 'Tier One' Military Power?

apolloa

We did.

But not in 1939. We should have acted with international allies much sooner than that to act against the military build up in Germany, Anschluss and the occupation of the Rhineland.

Doing so would have avoided a war in the form it was eventually fought.

apolloa

Without doubt we should remain a tier 1 Defense fource, but currently I doubt we’ll even replace Trident!
Russia is enjoying our weakness.. I wonder if we actually had a force worth speaking about that wasn’t seen as America’s lap dog, if they would release Russian chemical weapons in our streets? And what do we do in response, shout at them and kick their embassy staff out.

And two more victims this year from that same Russian chemical weapon who had absolutely nothing to do with these Russian spy and his daughter, I think? British citizens attacked by a Russian chemical weapon on British soil. And we don’t have fun have any planes for the I e aircraft carrier going through sea trials..

Trollslayer

Ah yes, HMS Ocean which I believe we owed nothing on, sold for reasons I still don’t know... and the Harrier, the ONLY successful VSTOL fighter in service, and still is, as the F35 variant I don’t think is in service yet? Either way it’s taken some nearly 60 years for it to be bettered. The US still use it I think!

alan280170

The Harriers could have been kept in service until F35bs were ready.

Sonic67

The US marines love the Harrier, they bought all of ours.

apolloa

It was intended to be in service for 20 years and it was.
The F35B was declared operational by the US marines in 2015. They were sent to Japan in 2017 and used as a show of force to North Korea recently.

Trollslayer

Proof on the F35B VSTOL being in active service please..

And I see so when a perfectly serviceable ship, which has just undergone a tax payer paid multi million pound retrofit, meets when it was said to end service it should end service no matter what, using your logic..
So do you change your computer or phone when the manufacture tells you to as well? Strange logic you’ve got there..

Sonic67

They are still nowhere near fully operational though. Plus they need a special laptop connected to load mission data and that doesn't always work even now.

Sonic67

Stealth ‘jump jets’ go to sea on first ever operational deployment

First F-35B shipboard deployment to begin as US warship arrives in Japan
Odd to use as an example.

Most people replace a perfectly good mobile phone or computer just so they can have the latest model.

Do you have a 20 year old TV? Mobile phone? Car?

Why would you have the latest kit yourself but expect the services to use old kit?
Exactly...

The Dude

Israel has flown the F35 on combat missions in part because of the information they can pass on to other aircraft on the same mission.

Any weapon system is constantly tweaked so I don't know what you mean by "fully operational." It's used on operational service now. It will be updated as time goes on like anything else.