Why does the British Armed Forces have almost no equipment?

Question

I was looking at Wikipedia the other day, I came across the Royal Navy page. I saw our 'Invincible' class aircraft carriers and compared them to Americas ships. The result; we have two (one in a dry dock) and they carry ten times less than the 10+ ships they have!! I was shocked but not surprised. Our soliders are also called 'The Borrowers' by the American forces in Iraq because of the amount of equipment they have to borrow. Is the British Army just for show because it doesn't look like a serious force!!!???

Answer 1

We can't compete with the USA on weapons we haven't got the money and most of the money the government does have outside the NHS gets spent on welfare.
Why the small forces we do have don't have decent equipment you will have to ask the Labour Government who throughout their history have always treated the Armed services and Police as second class citizens. I remember the disastrous Labour Government in the late 70's who treated the the Armed forces and Police very badly and they were in a complete mess.
My late father served in Bomber Command throughout WW2 and was a very keen Labour man until just after the war when they were voted into office, one the first things they did was to cut the serviceman's wages!!! My father who lost a number of friends during the war never forgave the Labour party and voted Conservative after that.

Answer 2

You cannot compare the UK to the USA. The problem with the Royal Navy at present is that it is configured for fighting a war against the Soviet Union in the North Atlantic. Our current Destroyers, Frigates and Submarines are largely irrelevant to current military doctrine. The government is doing something about this - we now have 3 new amphibious ships (Ocean, Albion and Bulwark) and well as more RFA transport vessels. And two new "super-carriers" are to be built.

It is easy for people, especially those with a political chip on their shoulder to blame the present Government, but remember that the defence budget has seen some of the biggest real increases under the current Labour government.

Answer 3

u'll upset folks with that attitude.

the UK does have an efficient & strong fighting-force,
but u need 2 bear in mind the Armed Forces, don't get told the whole truth about war.
they find out after the fact.
when the war-machine was being wound-down & starved of investment, just like any other Project of the Government.
& by the time the Establishment get around 2 needing the Army/Navy/Air-force it's now ready 2 sign-up 2 more debt, curtsey of the US.
we had just finished paying the debt of over 4.33 billion,
now b'liar as signed us up 4 more!
4 some reason the US r only happy when the UK owe them BILLIONS!
:(

Answer 4

I don't think the Labour government alone can shoulder the balme for this. Remember the cuts prior to Falklands by Nott, the Tory Defense minister who was in the process of selling the Invincible to the Australians. -Invincible was key in the success of the Falklands campaign.

We have suffered consecutive Governments who see the MOD as a easy target to reduce spending, however still call on the Armed Forces to fight their battles for them. Compare the number of Ships owned by the RN from the Falklands to the few we have today.

Answer 5

look interior the actual international. Decode this lyrics " you'll see " How? With the useless Mummy and all the black insects crawling all around the land? Even the M I B might want to no longer remedy it. With pest administration and fumigation. in uncomplicated words the Ghost Buster can manage ghost from the twilight zone in numerous time zone in time. What more effective on speaking about out sourcing. How can we wrestle ghost from the twilight zone in numerous time zone in time? Luke 21.30-36 What do you imagine?

Answer 6

The British government keeps cutting back on our military and our ships are being mothballed which is pathetic because most of the world relies on the Royal Navy.

Answer 7

Outside of the Usa the British have some of the finest equipment in the world.The americans have better aircraft carriers but didnt have minesweepers to lead them into the Gulf in the first gulf war.The americans had better attack helicopters before we got the apaches but the RAF helicopters were far advanced in air to air control and directed all coalision air forces in the gulf.The most advanced helicopter in the world is the new Royal Navy one .The list goes on .Even the top secret armour on US tanks was first used on Brit. ones then shared with only their US allies.Dont think that because the US have quantity that they beat us on quality in all military matters.

Answer 8

as lying women say its not the size its what you do with it!

look at the mess that america got themsleves into during vietnam afganistan and iraq, there war fighting is designed around a large scale attack with lots of planes and ships and tanks look at the brits in afgan in helmand 4,000 troops and air support and we have more succuess in a year than the americans since 2001,

its the way we do things we just do it better.

Answer 9

This has been happening for a long,long time,and the only conclusion you can come to is,that the British Government dont give a fuk about their own soldiers,and its a total disgrace.

Answer 10

the royal navy is have a suprising amount of boats its just thay lend all of them to other navys through out the word and that is why we have no ships