British Military Current Events

[daftandbarmy]

Spitfire back in the air after 71 years

A Second World War Spitfire, which crashed on a beach in northern France, has been restored to its former glory.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/8771012/Spitfire-back-in-the-air-after-71-years.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

More proof that crime DOES pay...

Sinn Fein's McGuinness to run for Irish president - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/09/18/ireland.president/index.html?hpt=hp_bn2

 

[daftandbarmy]

The making of the SAS, the men who dare
A new book reveals the early history of the SAS in unprecedented detail and allows us insights into the modern regiment.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/britainatwar/8781946/The-making-of-the-SAS-the-men-who-dare.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

The latest Operational Awards list. Huzzah!

 

[daftandbarmy]

I am shocked!! (not)

McGuinness says IRA did murder

Martin McGuinness has said he accepted that a number killings carried out by the IRA during the Troubles could be described as murders.

http://www.u.tv/News/McGuinness-says-IRA-did-murder/b402a1bf-edec-49cf-9462-4509b99ec697

 

[daftandbarmy]

Young soldier gets posthumous bravery medal for ignoring orders to save comrade's life... and being blown up and killed in the process

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044753/Young-soldier-gets-posthumous-bravery-medal-ignoring-orders-save-comrades-life--blown-killed-process.html#ixzz1ZqmQClkS

 

[daftandbarmy]

Fox's legacy

IN THE end, he had to go. Liam Fox is a bouncy, cocky, “nod’s as good as a wink” charmer, much loved by the right of his party for his ideological certainty and equally distrusted by the more liberal Cameroons for his poorly disguised contempt for their centrist pragmatism. But not even the ebullient Dr Fox could face down the daily flow of revelation about his reckless relationship with Adam Werritty and the manifest conflicts of interest it caused him. From the point of view of Britain’s dysfunctional Ministry of Defence (MoD) and its financially strained armed forces it is, however, rather a pity that Dr Fox’s indiscretions gave him no option other than to fall on his sword.

For a start, a bit of continuity would have done the MoD no harm after the rapid turnover of half-hearted Labour defence secretaries who serially failed to grip its problems. Although Dr Fox had only been in the job for 17 months, he had been shadow defence secretary in opposition for more than four years, which made him well-prepared for his ministerial duties when the coalition was formed in May 2010. He also loved the job. As a romantic nationalist with a deep commitment to Britain’s defence partnership with America, he was in his element (sometimes, a bit too much so) shuttling to and from Washington, visiting the boys in Afghanistan and carrying out an extremely active military-to-military diplomacy.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/clausewitz/2011/10/britains-ministry-defence

 

[daftandbarmy]

Ayo Gurkhali!!

Gurkha who beheaded Taliban soldier in Afghanistan battle cleared to return to dutyBy Gavin Allen

A Gurkha solider who beheaded a Taliban gunman and carried his head back to base in a bag has been cleared to resume his duties.

The private, from 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, was involved in a fierce firefight with insurgents in the Babaji area of central Helmand Province when the incident took place earlier last July.

The Nepalese soldier, who is in his early 20s, apparently made the decision to remove the head in a misunderstanding over the need for DNA evidence of the kill.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049987/Gurkha-beheaded-Taliban-soldier-Afghanistan-battle-cleared-return-duty.html#ixzz1b4YWr6B6

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049987/Gurkha-beheaded-Taliban-soldier-Afghanistan-battle-cleared-return-duty.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

Lovely people, the IRA.... best when hung, drawn and quartered

Brother of Omagh bomber jailed for buying guns and explosives to carry out Real IRA terror attack on London

-'Tick, tick, tick, tick... gone': How brother of Omagh bomber was trapped buying guns and explosives for Real IRA attack on LondonMichael Campbell, 39, caught on tape plotting a 'terror day-trip to London'
-Police praise the bravery of undercover MI5 agents after four-year operation
-'You can imagine us getting over to England... you imagine, with a six-hour timer, we could be over to London and back. Just tick, tick, tick, tick... gone'
-Republican sentenced to 12 years in jail by a Lithuanian judge
-Paid just £5,200 for arsenal of high-grade explosives, grenade launchers, detonators, AK-47s and a special assassin's rifle


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051800/Michael-Campbell-Brother-Omagh-bomber-jailed-Real-IRA-London-terror-plot.html#ixzz1bR5SILyI

 

[daftandbarmy]

Army to get £1bn Warrior upgrade

A £1 billion upgrade of the Army's Warrior armoured vehicles was announced today.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond made the announcement during a visit to Lockheed Martin UK in Bedford.

The upgrade is to extend the service life of the vehicles through to 2040 and beyond.
"This shows the concrete benefits of the fundamental changes we have introduced to modernise our Armed Forces and to bring the future defence budget back to balance", David Cameron said.

"It means we are now able to ensure our soldiers have greater flexibility and firepower with these upgraded armoured vehicles."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8847960/Army-to-get-1bn-Warrior-upgrade.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

'Bad show': Douglas Bader's stoical logbook entry on crash that cost him his legs | Mail Online



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054353/Bad-Douglas-Baders-stoical-logbook-entry-crash-cost-legs.html

 

[GAP]

Army spends £45M on Canada training
3 November 2011
Article Link

The Army spends an average of almost £45 million a year training British soldiers on a Canadian prairie, the Government said today.

Seven thousand troops are sent to British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS), on a prairie in Alberta, each year ahead of deployment to war zones, including Afghanistan.

They are able to fire live weapons more freely than in the UK because of the vast size of the prairie in Alberta.
But figures revealed by the Ministry of Defence show spending on BATUS totalled £224.5 million over the past five years, peaking at £58 million in 2009/10.

It works out at an average of £44.9 million annually since 2006.

Junior defence minister Peter Luff said the total cost of operating BATUS was even higher.

He told MPs: "These figures exclude manpower costs for military and MOD civil servants, and also for stock consumption, since these costs would be incurred wherever the Army is training."

The figures were revealed following a written parliamentary question by Labour MP Alison Seabeck , who asked whether BATUS's costs would be affected by ministers' plans to pull British troops out of Germany.

Mr Luff said: "The training that currently takes place in Germany is unit-level training and similar training also takes place in the UK.

"The training that takes place at BATUS is higher-level, collective training where a number of units join together to form battle groups for larger-scale exercises in preparation for deployment."
More on link

 

[The Bread Guy]

Army spends £45M on Canada training
3 November 2011
Article Link

The Army spends an average of almost £45 million a year training British soldiers on a Canadian prairie, the Government said today.

Seven thousand troops are sent to British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS), on a prairie in Alberta, each year ahead of deployment to war zones, including Afghanistan.

They are able to fire live weapons more freely than in the UK because of the vast size of the prairie in Alberta.
But figures revealed by the Ministry of Defence show spending on BATUS totalled £224.5 million over the past five years, peaking at £58 million in 2009/10.

It works out at an average of £44.9 million annually since 2006.

Junior defence minister Peter Luff said the total cost of operating BATUS was even higher.

He told MPs: "These figures exclude manpower costs for military and MOD civil servants, and also for stock consumption, since these costs would be incurred wherever the Army is training."

The figures were revealed following a written parliamentary question by Labour MP Alison Seabeck , who asked whether BATUS's costs would be affected by ministers' plans to pull British troops out of Germany.

Mr Luff said: "The training that currently takes place in Germany is unit-level training and similar training also takes place in the UK.

"The training that takes place at BATUS is higher-level, collective training where a number of units join together to form battle groups for larger-scale exercises in preparation for deployment."
More on link

That's ~$73.4M Canadian bucks - thanks UK!

 

[daftandbarmy]

Defence community rejects UK strategy


The defence and security thinktank's 2011 survey showed that 59 per cent of respondents felt the UK's strategy was "not appropriate" to deal with the geopolitical challenges the UK faces. Less than a third of respondents agreed that the strategy was suitable.

The government has hailed the success of operations in Libya as proof that the strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) were working, but 74 per cent of respondents to the RUSI survey disagreed, with just 12 per cent of those asked supporting the government's argument.

Also, more than two thirds of respondents, 68 per cent, said that the need for carrier strike capability had become "more apparent" since last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Of the 1,543 members of the defence community questioned in late October, 58 per cent said the UK should invest more in the ability to conduct operations independently, even if this meant a reduction in the size of deployable forces.

http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=17912

 

[Edward Campbell]

Defence community rejects UK strategy


The defence and security thinktank's 2011 survey showed that 59 per cent of respondents felt the UK's strategy was "not appropriate" to deal with the geopolitical challenges the UK faces. Less than a third of respondents agreed that the strategy was suitable.

The government has hailed the success of operations in Libya as proof that the strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) were working, but 74 per cent of respondents to the RUSI survey disagreed, with just 12 per cent of those asked supporting the government's argument.

Also, more than two thirds of respondents, 68 per cent, said that the need for carrier strike capability had become "more apparent" since last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Of the 1,543 members of the defence community questioned in late October, 58 per cent said the UK should invest more in the ability to conduct operations independently, even if this meant a reduction in the size of deployable forces.

http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=17912

I'm happy to agree with the experts that the Strategic Defence and Security Review is inadequate but so, I suggest, is Britain's economic position. Put simply: how much defence will Britons tolerate while social services are being chopped?

There is some echo of our little (aborted?) 65 vs. 80 F-35s debate: a new, better, more capable aircraft should allow us to do pretty much the same things with fewer aircraft, but how many fewer? Is there an irreducible minimum beyond which even far greater capabilities don't count? I don't envy Britain's planners: not the defence planners and, especially, not the fiscal planners. Some folks here may remember Canada circa 1985 when we (DND) were told, over and over again, that the deficit was the biggest, indeed the only "enemy" Canada was facing, and we, DND, had to play a full and fair role in defeating it by cutting, again and again. It didn't help that we had been cutting, pretty much steadily, since 1965 - we were required to cut again. The fat was long gone (the fat that can be cut, anyway - believe me there is always protected fat that never gets cut) we were already cutting muscle and bone before Finance Minister Martin demanded more. But, and it's an important but, we understood that Mr. Martin was right. Canada's economic situation - the Wall Street Journal's "northern peso" and all that - was frightening to anyone with the wit to read a balance sheet; we, the entire country, had to slay the deficit dragon, and defence had to help. Britain in 2011 is, arguably, in worse shape than Canada was in 1985; sometimes you simply cannot afford to "do the right thing," or even to "do things right."

 

[daftandbarmy]

Amusing... another reason I love the British and no, it's not the food:

Butchers Think We Should Eat More Meat – the RUSI Survey

We often think the grown-ups at RUSI and Chatham House have a monopoly on strategic thought but having been at home to increasing concerns about their lack of influence and thought leadership for a while now the latest output from RUSI kind of tells me why.

The survey can be found here
http://www.rusi.org/news/rss/ref:N4EB171FEE2471/

The survey puts forward ten propositions, or loaded self fulfilling questions depending on your perspective.

I know these kinds of things have their place and it’s hard to know them for doing it but if you asked a butcher if the UK should eat more meat and if they should be involved in setting food strategy then surely you would arrive at the same kind of survey results.

What I find most puzzling though is in the ten propositions which are pretty broad the inclusion of something very equipment specific, proposition 9;


http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2011/11/butchers-think-we-should-eat-more-meat-the-rusi-survey/

 

[daftandbarmy]

Walting matilda...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8133050.stm

 

[daftandbarmy]

Cool as f***: Chilling words of Real IRA killers who gunned down British soldiers during 65-round pizza ambush

TWO suspected Republican dissidents fired 65 shots as they killed British soldiers collecting pizza outside an Army base in Northern Ireland, a court heard yesterday.

They gunned down and then executed Sappers Patrick Azimkar, 21, and Mark Quinsey, 23, hours before the soldiers were due to fly to Afghanistan.

A congratulatory phone message played to the court said: ‘Have to say boys you were as cool as ****.’

Four people were also seriously injured by the balaclava-wearing assassins at the Massereene Barracks in Antrim in March 2009.

As the murder trial of suspected Republican dissidents Colin Duffy, 43, and Brian Shivers, 45, began, chilling CCTV footage of the killings  – later claimed by the Real IRA, the dissident group opposed to the peace process – was shown.

It showed five soldiers, from the 38 Engineer Regiment, in desert combat gear walking out of the base to meet pizza delivery cars.

Two masked men then appeared, opening fire on them before pausing to aim at what the prosecution said was wounded men on the ground.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058731/IRA-killers-charged-death-British-soldiers-2009.html#ixzz1d472c4MB

 

[daftandbarmy]

HMS Belfast torpedoed by PC Brigade

Are Olympics chiefs ashamed of our proud military history? In the days before Remembrance Sunday the HMS Belfast is airbrushed from poster

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059193/London-2012-Olympics-poster-HMS-Belfast-airbrushed-days-Remembrance-Sunday.html

- mod edited to add link that works -

 

[jollyjacktar]

Spineless bastards are everywhere these days it seems.