Talk about an eyeopener...
Mike Martin, the Liberal Democrat MP for Tunbridge Wells, is Arthur Snell's latest guest on his Behind the Lines podcast. And he paints an alarming picture of Britain's armed forces.
You would hope that the Conservatives would at least care about the defence of the realm, but it turns out they left defence in as big a mess as every other area of government.
The Navy, for instance, has aircraft carriers, but no planes to launch from them, and at any one time can have only five ships at sea.
If the RAF had to fight tonight, it could muster 30 planes, and none of our airfields as any air defence.
And the Army is shrinking. It currently has only 12 artillery pieces.
Mike is very good on the way the top brass always thinks that new technology will replace the need for boots on the ground - in the 1920s it was biplanes - but it never does.
No comments:
Post a Comment