Revision [97598]
This is an old revision of Defence made by nick on 2015-09-08 21:08:53.
Reform: 4-Pillars of the Liberal Awakening
Political Reform
Constitution - Europe - Environment - Trade - Foreign Policy - Security & Defence
Security & Defence
- Purpose of Security Expenditure:
- Defend the United Kingdom from external hostile threats
- Protect our democratic society and its values from internal organisations who oppose these values and want to take violent and illegal action to implement.
- Protect threats to our ability to trade around the world.
- De-commission our Aircraft Carriers
- They serve no purpose to any perceived or real threats.
- Against any potential strong enemy (eg. Russia or China) they are too vulnerable to use and will not be allowed to go to sea.
- Against any soft targets (pirates, guerillas etc) they are completely unnecessary and over specified.
- They hark back to an imperialist mentality of projecting power: a vanity project by politicians and generals who hark back to world that no longer exist.
- Army
- Emphasis on specialist troops.
- Reduce overall numbers: if large numbers are needed in regional conflicts then local troops to be trained and used.
- Remaining troops to be equipped with the most state-of-the-art equipment and highly trained for new digital warfare.
- Heavy Tanks to be phased out: replaced with fast transportable armoured vehicles.
- Air Force and Army to merge.
- A separate strategic air force is no longer required.
- Instead of bidding against each other, the two services are to develop an integrated system for all soft and hard threats.
- Air force procurement will be based on:
- homeland defence against missiles, high speed aircraft, and electronic warfare.
- Army support (Helicopters, anti-tank, electronic countermeasure, early warning, rapid reaction transport etc).
- Navy
- Strategic Role:
- any potential threats from military superpowers (eg. China and Russia) requires an emphasis on submarines, and anti-missile, anti-shipping,& electronic countermeasure equipment.
- The age of large capital shipping is over: There is no perceived threat these large vessels are useful for.
- Large slow vulnerable frigates and cruisers to be phased out. They are over specified for counter-insurgency operations and skirmishes, and too vulnerable against potential strong enemies.
- Insurgency support:
- Support the army and marines with amphibious and rapid reaction equipment.
- Trade Routes
- Fast moving heavily armed vessels to protect against piracy.
- Trident Nuclear Deterrent
- A world of Democratic nations will have no need for Nuclear Weapons. Both unilateral and multilateral disarmament should quickly follow.
- However, until that situation arises, Trident offers the cheapest and simplest means of ensuring that the United Kingdom is protected.
