Should Britain remain a 'Tier One' Military Power?

Skull n Bones

They love it after they've finished improving it.

More power, more armour, more weapons, bigger alloys.

My first job was refitting harriers to AV8B spec before they went on the boat to the US, lots of drilling holes in titanium plating and accompanying swearing.

Only an American could decide to take the spanners to something as perfect as the harrier, but in truth it was a much better aircraft by the time that they had finished, looks a lot meaner too.

weaviemx5

Have you any evidence it was a Russian chemical weapon ?

And to think, whatever the couple in Amesbury were exposed to, is from the same batch the Skripals were supposedly exposed to 4 months ago is just laughable.
Amesbury poisoning is a terrorist attack, secondary contamination impossible – expert to RT

This is terrorism alright, but not from who you think it's from

Sonic67

The expert in that RT article contradicts himself though in claiming it's a terrorist attack from a 3rd party that wants to discredit Russia.  He states that the nerve agent would have to be opened and drank or touched to infect them after 4 months;

"The VX nerve agent, which is one of the most stable organophosphorus compounds, can stand for ten days, two weeks, maybe three weeks if the environment conditions are good enough for it. But [remaining] for four months in an environment – it's impossible," the expert added.

In order to be contaminated, the UK couple must have "found a container [with the nerve agent], opened it and drank from it or touched it, or something," Utkin said."

It then goes on to state that the two people poisoned have drink/drug problems (I'm not sure where that came from?) which could explain why they would have touched/consumed an unknown substance;

"Medics evacuated Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess, who reportedly had problems with alcohol and drugs, from a property in Muggleton Road on Saturday; but the incident remained unreported for a few days."

I'm not suggesting that all people with drink/drug problems would automatically consume an unknown substance but it wouldn't be unheard of.  Hospitals don't have alcohol gel dispensers on beds within dependency units because it gets drunk.

raduv1

Biased Russian broadcaster says it can't be true. Who knew?

This is how two people could have been poisoned with novichok again

Vladimir Uglyov, one of the men credited with inventing the “novichok” series of nerve agents, told The Independent that he wasn’t surprised that the substance had hung around.

“Unlike some of my colleagues, I’ve always said that it is very stable,” he said. “It can persist for years, with nothing much happening to it. ”There is a very, very, slow process of evaporation.”

According to the now-retired scientist, “novichok” can bury itself in paint, trees, and, perhaps, in wooden benches: “It can get in and remain there for a very long time. If it is on a neutral surface, it will only degrade on account of evaporation. And that would be a long process.”

Thickened agent can have the consistency of Bostik glue. It is useful as you can drop it on airfields and make the decontamination process a long one. Fair play to the crabs, they can tend to be good at CBRN for this reason.

There was a US vehicle in Iraq contaminated by a chemical shell set off by an IED. The problem was decontaminating it. You can spray it and scrub it but what if one day it's in the US and a vehicle mechanic strips a bit down, the substance is in a screw thread, and he touches it with his fingers?

Do you destroy the vehicle or strip it down to its bare parts and then scrub every nut and bolt? At what point are you going to be 100% convinced it is totally safe?

Trollslayer

This is biased BS alright and exactly who you think it's from .

Trollslayer

Rubbish Today.
Oh, how did they explain shooting down a 747?

Skull n Bones

A little while back there was a problem that while the F35 could talk to the missiles that we use, it couldn't listen so you didn't know if commands were received.

Sonic67

Call me a cynic but again, what a convenient time for the government for something like this happen...

If the novichok was planted by Russia, where’s the evidence? | Simon Jenkins

Some good reporting from a more unbiased source maybe

justincase

It took years for the Typhoon to start doing air-ground and some Type 45's initially deployed without Harpoon.

Sonic67

Your a cynic
I am seriously getting to the stage that if the media reported today was friday i wouldn't believe them