St Crispin’s Day

BAE puts HERTI on show in Singapore - UPI.com

What a load of B&llocks!!  I was there when it was trialled, and it nearly crashed!!  It had engine failure on finals!!

I saw this guy last night at the Indigo2 (the dome).

He was simply amazing, and I make no excuse for using my blog to publicise him.

 What do you think?

New Stryker Faring Poorly in Field

 So it’s not just us then!!

BBC NEWS | England | Beds/Bucks/Herts | Coroner attacks MoD over failure
The inquest heard how, before the incident on 11 June, 7 Para soldiers had complained repeatedly about a lack of proper equipment - chiefly standard night vision kits and weaponry.
Mr Walker, assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, said: “They (the soldiers) were defeated not by the terrorists but by the lack of basic equipment.”
He said sending troops into a combat zone without basic kit was “unforgivable and inexcusable” and “a breach of trust between the soldiers and those who govern them”.

He recorded a narrative verdict in which he said Capt Philippson was unlawfully killed.

Yes, bu his own government!  This has got to stop right now.  It’s criminal to have any sort of budget cuts in defence whilst we are going out on these operations.  If there is a squeeze on any budget, then eventually someone at the bottom of the chain says “let’s only take half the night vision goggles we need!”

The Air Force doesn’t need any more F-22s. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine

The US have seen sense. An aircraft designed to cope with the cold war threat!  Who needs it?  Typhoon anyone?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ministers consider UK astronauts

A British space program is a fine thing to strive for (although I expect it’s 40 years too late).  But what about the priorities?  Simply put, I think we have to sort out social issies first.  And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, surely defence ( and possibly ome other bits of the budget) need the money first.

Just a thoughrt, and why we didn’t go to the moon 40 years ago?  According Al Murray the pub landlord “‘cos there was nobody to hand it back to after we’d finished with it”

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories bid to ‘transform Lottery’

 So, here we see a policy on the lottery from the tories, but still no word on how big the army needs to be? We need a definitive statement from them on;-

1. If they think the military (especially the Army) is big enough.

2. How much the percentage of GDP needs to be increased (I was always of the opinion that the tories wer pro-military).

3. What cuts to other schemes will go to pay for the increases that are CLEARLY NEEDED.

I’m currently out on Salisbury plain playing a tiny part in the preparation of 16 Air Assault Brigade’s build up training prior to deploying to Afghanistan in March.

How serious do you think this training should be taken?  VERY? Well, just imagine how difficult it is to replicate the real conditions when you A. have ony 2/3 of the vehicles you expect to have out there.  B. You are missing weapons that you will have when you get out there.  C. There is not the available helicopter or air power to replicate what you will have out there?  Why have we not got this?  Because its ALL out there. 

I’m sure that a prime minister said that commanders would get everything they needed????