Posted on 01/27/2024 6:27:59 PM PST by Red Badger
British warships in the Red Sea can not carry missiles capable of destroying Houthi rebel bases - despite the Yemeni group continuing its campaign of strikes against civilian ships.
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Royal Navy destroyers and frigates do not have the capability to strike Houthi land targets and the situation has been described as a "scandal" by a former UK defence chief.
The deficiency has left the US to strike land targets against the belligerent group alone - aided by RAF aircraft nearly 1,500 miles away.
A British defence source told the Sunday Telegraph that the HMS Diamond, stationed to respond to Houthi provocations in the Red Sea, "did not have the capability to fire at land targets".
A British defence source told the Sunday Telegraph that the HMS Diamond, stationed to respond to Houthi provocations in the Red Sea, "did not have the capability to fire at land targets". Picture: Alamy
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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that it had been instead "directly involved in successfully destroying Houthi drones" in the Red Sea.
An former rear admiral suggested that the inability on show in the Red Sea shows that the British armed forces would be unable to withstand a full-scale war against China or Russia.
The latest blow comes after Brits were warned that we must prepare for conscription within six years unless Vladimir Putin is defeated by an expert.
Several Nato members have faced warnings about bolstering their militaries in the event of an armed conflict, most likely with Russia.
This includes the UK, where the head of the British Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, said Brits would face being called up in the event of a war as our military is 'too small'.
Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, has said Sir Patrick is “absolutely right” that the UK should prepare for an outbreak of all-out war.
“The UK Government should plan to sign up volunteers now and over the next three years and 'the whole of the nation' should prepare for conscription within six years unless Putin were defeated,” he told The Mirror.
Professor Glees compared the current situation in the UK to 1937, the pre-war years before the outbreak of another war.
This follows previous comments made by Sir Patrick back in 2022, when he said the UK was having a ‘1937 moment’ as the West came to grips with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
While Sir Patrick does not support conscription - which means forcing individuals to serve in the military - in the British army, he said he does believe there needs to be a "shift" in the mindset of regular Brits.
Sir Patrick wants regular Brits to 'think more like troops' in case an all-out war with Russia does break out.
He called for a Finnish-style 'citizen army', which would be made up of 500,000 people, including soldiers, reserves and eventually, volunteers and regular citizens.
Professor Glees continued: “I would see a 'limited conscription', a call-up of incentivised volunteers, as being very much on the cards if Putin is now thrown out of Ukraine.
“Obviously, if there were a wider European or world war, conscription would follow at once.
“Putin has repeatedly said he wants the post-1997 NATO states to be disarmed and brought back into the Russia orbit, re-creating the system of satellites that was the strategic policy of the USSR.
“There's not a snowball's chance in hell of Putin just going away.”
Well DAM , if Professor Anthony Glees from Buckingham says that Russia threatens the West, don’t wait, just launch !
Once the Royal Navy was a force to be feared and respected. Now it is a hollow shell of its former self. Without the USN India could take them out. We are in bad shape if a naval war should break out.
Note the messaging and politics in the statement. Consider that statement in light of the recruitment problems our US military is experiencing. The "regular Brits" need to become scared of a land invasion from Russia? Well, a little more than three years ago, another British professor modeled a "pandemic" death rate to scare those "regular Brits" and it worked. Though the forecasts were wildly wrong, the palpable fear was stoked, ans the result profitably for SOME, but not most "regular Brits." Repeat the messaging of late in Sweden and elsewhere, and the "nudging" towards being on a war footing -- like a medical emergency footing -- is being stirred up.
Which Freepers think an actual land invasion of Great Britain by Russia will occur?
On the other hand, which Freepers think a land invasion of Great Britain is ALREADY underway by economic migrants?
Interesting, that dear old professor can't see as far as Calais, but imagines the "red menace" a thousand miles away.
“The British are civilized & well organized, I’m not worried about them.”
Lol.
https://jobs.army.mod.uk/regular-army/inclusion-values/lgbt/
“We’ve always been at war with Eastasia, Winston.” - George Orwell, 1984
HMS Diamond - anti-air, air defense, guided missile destroyer
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All of the British Royal Navy destroyers can launch:
- AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM)
- AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (SLAM - Expanded Response)
IF THEY HAVE THE MISSILES
Given the enormous British participation -- Ferguson et. al. at Imperial College, London -- in erecting the massive wall of fear at the beginning of the Covid panic, starting with those "lockdowns," and the continuing "climate change" bilge coming from King Charles and down the aristocratic ranks into the academic ranks, one could argue that Orwell got one thing wrong.
Updating with apologies to Orwell,
“We’ve always been at war with the hoi polloi and the useless eaters and the deplorables and the regular rubes, Winston.”The elite of Britain, who want British citizens to change their mindset, is an aging once-empire little bunch of prigs, barking as if its little military is a big dog.
The next Falklands crisis should be interesting.
Additional reading, if your interested: The Failure of Imperial College Modeling Is Far Worse than We Knew American Institute for Economic Research, 22 April 2021
Sadly it won't happen because no political support.
When your bestie has, and can carry rail guns in either hand, you tend to be lippy. Like a woman in a bar with a man, she will provoke others to fight by being lippy.
I am thinking GB is cocky and sure, cocksure, that they can handle anything that an enemy throws at them. After all, they survived Germany. roflmao. Without the US, they would have been wiped off the face of the Earth. Give them the firebombing that they laid on civilians in Germany towards the end of WW2 and they will surrender like the French.
People forget what real war feels and looks like. Most grew up in a blankie, wrapped in cotton, and fed to obesity.
Ask the Ukrainian people, who “strong they will stand”, as they leave the country in droves. War is not a recruitment video. Visit a VA hospital, and see how bad it is when you “Win”.
Whose stupid idea was it to build allied forces, who need each other to survive. Take out one, and you critically weaken the others.
My advice to MY country, is retrench and tell Europe to handle their own problems. We in the US are broke, and need to clean out the riff raff.
While I have some few distant cousins and good friends in Europe, I totally agree with you. Their problems are not our problems, in this moment. $34+ trillion in rapidly rising debt means "broke" to me too, and there is indeed too much "riffraff" in the political elite.
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