What happened to Scapa Flow? Is it no longer a base?
Very strange.
The RAF is more than capable of taking out a ship of any size without even breaking a sweat.
I think that is why the new destroyers don’t have ship-to-ship missiles — they are pretty useless in 99% of all battle situations which will always involve fighters.
uhm...the British were just buggered! Must be hard to accept that they were once a great naval fleet - but now they are becoming the back water to Islamic radicals and liberal takeover....the decline of the monarchy...but then - so sadly - so are we in the US running the same track they are....
On Oct 14, 1939, Guenther Prien and the U-47 penetrated the Royal Navy's primary base at Scapa Flow, and sank the battleship "Royal Oak."
Looks to me like that Russian vessel is a RADAR techs nightmare.
It’s best to be able to Nuke them from Space, in minutes.
It was a Royal Navy ship NOT a US ship…. breath will ya
He added: ‘The Russian fleet, which is growing in strength and expanding its sphere of influence, wanted to show a presence in the North Sea and sail as close as possible to the national sea boundary.
‘The Russians knew exactly what they were doing. They were saying,
“We are back in business in the North Sea and we are powerful.”
The Federal government spies on us, over-taxes us, and targets us for speaking out against them. DHS considers Christians, conservatives and libertarians to be enemies, so exactly which side should I root for?
I suspect the reason Putin did this was to light a fire under the Brits, if not the EU, that their abrogation of military might leaves them wide open.
His purpose is to convince the assembled that they need a military, because if they build one, it will counterbalance the current big advantage, even if just a little, of the US.
It is a subtle thing, but a smart one, from his point of view. Lots of scenarios agree with him.
Where’s the Spanish Armada when you need’em?
The Harpoon anti-ship missile upgrade is scheduled for 4 of the 6 Type-45 destroyers using equipment taken from de-commissioned ships -
http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2013/08/type-45-and-harpoon/
I guess they didn’t want to throw away the quad launchers...:^)
Why are we called to defend the Brits for something like this?
“was Putin testing our response time?”
No. I’m sure he has precise data on that.
Testing our resolve, more likely.
I find that worrisome.
Fwiw, I've also read that the Russian ship (no type published, file photo used in reports) was "sheltering in the Firth from adverse weather conditions", according to the Russians...
This is the press reports.
The RN has HMS Portland in Rosyth, which is a a Type 23 frigate that could have responded quicker.
They also had an SSN in the area shadowing the Slava cruiser...which itself could have taken her out at any time.
Finally, the RAF was well aware of the approaching vessel through all sorts of surveillance and SIGINT they had. They too could have responded if there had been any perceived threat.
The RN choose to send a Type 45 up there (at a long distance) more to give the Type 45 the experience.
Finally, four of the six Type 45s are receiving their eight Harpoon anti-shipping missiles, which they were designed all along to be able to carry.
The Type 45 is an excellent destroyer, just too few of them at six. They should have built at least 12 of them IMHO.
Thye current PLANS for the Royal Navy include the six Type 45 DDGs, the 13 Type 23 FFGs which are very capable vessels, the 7 Astute SSNs, the Ocean LHA, the two LPDs, and the two new aircraft carriers.
The vessels they have will be extremely modern and extremely capable...just too few of them IMHO. Would have been better to have 12 DDGs, 24 FFGs, and 12 SSNs. But it is what it is.