"Left hand down a bit, Chief Pertwee."
Posted on 11/22/2011 3:31:41 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Navy frigate sent to Libya with four missiles
A Royal Navy frigate was sent to the Libyan war zone armed with as few as four missiles, it has been disclosed.
Royal Navy officers said HMS Westminster was “dangerously under-defended” when it was called on to patrol close to the Libyan port city of Benghazi in March.
The warship can carry 32 Seawolf and eight Harpoon missiles but it is understood that military cutbacks left the Westminster and its crew of 190 with only a fraction of that capability.
As Seawolf missiles — which are used to intercept incoming missiles — are fired in pairs, sources said the Westminster had just two rounds to defend against missile attacks from Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.
In another recent admission, the Royal Navy said it was unable to spare a warship to guard British waters for the whole of October after last year’s defence cuts.
Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a retired officer, said it was unbelievable that the Westminster had so few missiles on board and said ships in the Falklands and the Gulf wars were equipped to full capacity. He added: “This is yet another example of the incoherence of last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review. What if the Government’s bluff had been called? What would the Ministry of Defence be saying if the Westminster had been hit by something? They took a big risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The cuts start in 2013. There is a certain way to make sure that Hussein has nothing to do with the budget after the election.
"Left hand down a bit, Chief Pertwee."
Yeah, but they have plenty of money to waste on all of their social welfare ratholes.
It’s sad how far Great Britain has sunk.
This is what happens in a welfare state. Buying votes from the proles trumps having an effective military. Britain is now an empty husk.
And our congress just abbrogated their authority and responsibility to allow Obama to turn our nation 's military hollow.
This seems like a century ago.
The Brits can be a stingy lot. I studied there, I know them.
Whomever deployed this vessel should be court marshaled if they are in the military. If it was a civilian decision they should be executed in public.
All senior military officers who didn’t refuse to deploy the vessel should be publicly exposed and then court marshaled.
Sailing in harms way is one thing. Purposely being placed in harms way as soon as the colors are shifted is a totally different matter.
Thats not a bad thing sometimes, though.
p.s where did you live and study?. What did you like and dislike about the UK, and be brutally honest.
And the enemidia knows this because? Who was stupid enough to reveal this bit of intelligence and put a ship and crew at risk? Sounds like treason!
For those not up on torpedoes, the Mk 48 is the primary anti-sub and anti-ship weapon of the American Navy's SSN (fast attack) and SSBN (ballistic missile) subs. About the size of a WW2 “dumb” (unguided) torpedo, the Mk 48 relies on wire guidance and active sonar to find and kill its prey. One shot is usually enough — look up the sinking of the destroyer escort HMAS TORRENS (DE-53) by the submarine HMAS FARNCOMB (SSG-74) in 1999 on YouTube ir Wikipedia.
In the 1990s, had the USN gone to war, its submarine fleet had one complete load-out of Mk 48s for all its SSN/SSBN boats. When they came back to reload their torpedo racks (those that came back), there were only enough Mk 48 reloads to fill HALF the racks on the boats. After the first reload, there were no more Mk 48s in the inventory for a second reload. Since then, nothing has improved for the Mk 48 situation except things have gotten worse.
Quite Correct. But if he is re-elected , hold on to your hat -—he will run wild.
This is what happens in a welfare state. Buying votes from the proles trumps having an effective military. Britain is now an empty husk.
My latest addition to our crew in our little corner of the Rawles Redoubt is a former Royal Marine sergeant, about as unhappy with his initial exposure to urban USA [Indianapolis] as he was to what has happened to his native Blackpool.
His parents have passed on, and he had not the slightest interest in bnurdening his life with one of the typical dimwit lasses who's grown up under the Labour Party's governing policies and educational system. Accordingly, he;s looking forward to meeting a few nice Wyoming girls, not to mention one oer two who may not be all that nice.
But when I told him we had a couple of relocated Gurkhas in the area, he positively brightened. And when I told him he had the use of my L1A1 SLR until he could pick up a decent gat of his own, he was quite happy, and inquired a bit about bolt guns as well. Oh yes, I think he's going to fit in just fine.
Their loss is our gain. Enoch was right.
If Hussein is re-elected, you might not have a country left in 4 years.
Quite imposing. Quite amazing. Wow.
Don’t think that thought hasn’t crossed my mind.
It’s kind of scary, and I don’t even live in the US.
When we go down the world goes down son, I do not mean to be arrogant in saying that, but the United States is the greatest defender of freedoms in this world, and in any vacuum there is always something trying to fill the void.
That something today is Islam, or Communism.
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