If this keeps up, there will be no more wars. There won't be any hardware to use!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... evels.html

I am just way too angry to say anything about this

What is super elite?

BadPvtDan wrote:What is super elite?

The Royal Marines also face coming under direct Army control from Navy command and the possibility of being grouped into a “super elite” unit alongside two Parachute Regiment battalions.

One of those terms that imply better capability from combining forces. Designed to calm down the critics by asserting the combined forces are superior!

Superelite

A serviceman who is willing to lay down his/her life in defence of their country
without the support of the government that sends them to war with inadequate
kit/training/support.

Just your average Matelot/pongo/Crabfat

petebramley wrote:Superelite

A serviceman who is willing to lay down his/her life in defence of their country
without the support of the government that sends them to war with inadequate
kit/training/support.

Just your average Matelot/pongo/Crabfat

Yes, service men and women write a blank check to their country. It is up to and including their lives. Did my time also.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "cutbacks"....

Gives a whole new meaning to the term "f**kwits"....

Whilst I agree with many of the sentiments, this being an Air Force-centric forum, I tend to take a more pragmatic view as a(n ex-) 'pongo'.

All of the British Armed Forces are having to make huge cuts due to the financial climate (for that read financial ineptitude of the previous government). What I then ask myself is this, why do we need over 170 GR4s when they only deploy 6 (funny they managed to find another 2 just after the latest cuts were announced) to the 'Stan?

CelticWarrior wrote:What I then ask myself is this, why do we need over 170 GR4s when they only deploy 6 (funny they managed to find another 2 just after the latest cuts were announced) to the 'Stan?

That's interesting. I thought UK had more than just a handful over there

There are probably over 100 in a hangar somewhere awaiting repair
after being "serviced" by outside contractors

It's starting here too. SecDef Gates is reducing his budget etc.. Almost went to work for Lockheed Martin at Joint Forces Command and with the way Gates is going, the job I have now may not be safe.

GZR_Sactargets wrote:If this keeps up, there will be no more wars.

Believe me, at least the WWIII will not started by Germans. Today there are rumours in the press about shrinking the overall number of personnel of the Bundeswehr down to 165,000 (currently about 250,000).

War isn't cheap....

MIKE JG wrote:War isn't cheap....

Unfortunately, it still maybe in the minds of some penny-pinching civil servants; a lot of the time it's not the MP's who do the damage (unless they open their mouths)

I was the AF Program Manager for the General Defense Intelligence Program (GDIP) in the Pentagon. We spent almost all our time evaluating proposals for new systems, reviewing the costs of on-going programs and consolidating the results for all 4 services into the Congressional Budget Justification Book (CBJB). I had counter parts from the Army, Navy, and DIA. Initially we worked our individual services then sat as a committee to build the final Intelligence budget. We really scrubbed items that were submitted. They eventually wound up in the President's budget. Had to answer a lot of questions from Congressional Staffers and even a few from Congressmen directly. Sometimes by interview/conference and sometimes by written response. The bottom-line is after all that work it was easy for Congress or the President to alter the funding or even kill a program. Sometimes the reasons are given but often a dropped program just disappeared into the ether.

As far as the UK is concerned, I can see (to a point) the need to make cutbacks, following the debacle that was the previous administration.

What I fail to understand is how they are cutting back on Aircraft/Ships/Vehicles etc, whilst at the same time still pouring billions into Trident Nuclear Submarines.

MIKE JG wrote:War isn't cheap....

These days, war itself isn't the problem. It would seem that winning it is.

That or trying to bomb certain ethnic and religiously fanatical groups back into the stone age that really are not that far removed from the stone age in the first place.....