Our lads deserve more

Dangermouse

Dangermouse

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Our great leader G Brown has decided to spend money on jets we do not need as we have a fantastic Air force with all the jets and fighters we need but our ground troops which are massively underfunded cant get a penny. Its about time Brown OPENED his eyes and did something apart from the latest scandal of his own staff squandering our money on imaginary mortgages and moat cleaning,.........give the money to the causes that really need it for protection from bullets not the odd weed growing in a pond.

Support for our troops
 
Dangermouse1964 said:
Our great leader G Brown has decided to spend money on jets we do not need as we have a fantastic Air force with all the jets and fighters we need but our ground troops which are massively underfunded cant get a penny. Its about time Brown OPENED his eyes and did something apart from the latest scandal of his own staff squandering our money on imaginary mortgages and moat cleaning,.........give the money to the causes that really need it for protection from bullets not the odd weed growing in a pond.

Support for our troops
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Here Here!!!!!!!!! makes you sick hearing every day more getting killed or maimed and the MP's living it up nice and safe in their mansions paid for by us!
As for Brown don't you mean EYE? He's a disgrace to Scotland and should resign along with all his party
 
He should be shot imho. See how he likes it out there with minimal protection. Send him and the rest to the front line with no gear I say; they can earn my bloody respect.
 
Come on, be fair.... where would poor Tam Dalyell put all his books if we were to waste all those thousands of pounds on body armour instead of his fancy bookcases! :shrug: :cuckoo:
 
i 100 % percent agree it is wrong

but if they are going to do this wouldnt this also be a advantage by sending these to Iraq to help blow things up and therefore giving them better protection to our lads from the americans blue on blue as they are always calling for more air support and it can not always be provided due to planes out of action etc
 
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Don't be fooled, the RAF are struggling as much as anyone else thanks to the penny pinching of this mob.
 
Aperture87 said:
Don't be fooled, the RAF are struggling as much as anyone else thanks to the penny pinching of this mob.
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Yep, we are flying Hinds in Afghan,our stuff can`t do it in the thin air.
 
fracster said:
Yep, we are flying Hinds in Afghan,our stuff can`t do it in the thin air.
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Are you sure it's not the Army Air Corps who are flying the Hinds rather than the RAF?
 
Flash In The Pan said:
Notice that Tony Bliar's expenses claims have been conveniently shredded....
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Tony Blair resigned as an mp when he quit as prime minister.

The RAF have been flying virtual death traps for years it's about time they got an aircraft that wasn't made of worn out spare parts. If anyone wants the troops on the ground to do the job without them they have some hard lessons coming.
 
Steep said:
Tony Blair resigned as an mp when he quit as prime minister.
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I think Flash is talking about the period before his resignation... According to TimesOnline: "some of Blair’s files covering claims for Myrobella, his constituency home, were destroyed by Commons officials after they rejected The Sunday Times’s FOI request in January 2005 to see his claims for £43,029 of public money covering a three-year period."
 
Except for the new airframes that have recently come into service, like the Typhoon fighter and C17 transporter, the majority of the older aircraft will be well over their original design life. Life extension programs have been ongoing for years, to keep aircraft like the Nimrod and VC10 in service longer. The life of the fighters has been used up at an unprecedented rate with air campaigns in Yugoslavia and obviously the middle east.

When I left the RAF 4 years ago, there were quite a few (if not the majority) of the Tornado GR4 aircraft that had done between 4000 and 5000 hours when the design life was originaly 4000. The life extension program up to 8000 hours was/is intended to reach their expected retirement dates between 2017 and 2020. Being as they have been doing more and more with less and less, I expect the life usage would mean many aircraft being retired earlier than planned.


Sure, the guys on the front line should never be without essential kit like body armour ( we had to borrow body armour from the americans and australians for one of our trips to Baghdad international to recover a stranded aircraft), but planning for the future shouldn't be over looked either. Problem being the pot to pay for everything has been paying for incompetence in the city instead :bang:
 
And not to forget about the Royal Navy, who are flying on the front line in Afghanistan with the RAF, as part of Joint Force Harrier. There's money being spent on jets there after they've been extending and extending the life of the current carriers and Harriers.

It's all stuff that will help the troops on the ground, be it through a show of force or close air support.
 
before this becomes an RAF against ARMY fight as most here know we have a lad in the RAF as a flight refueller and Air corp so he does his fair share of fighting and has served our country 3 times in Afghanistan and twice in Iraq, his younger brother william is just about to embalk on his first tour of the Helmand province in that God forsaken country and yes we are hoping its a one off tour as he is in the ARMY as a rifleman so he is in the front line his gear is standard UK issue.....for overseas combat it does change , he gets some body protection which means his top half of the chest.......no kneck head or lower torso are protected and the press say these boys die becase of gunshots or blast injuries .......no protection from it is the case they put aluminium doors on the armoured cars and alloy frames on wagons .....how the hell can they call this armoured
 
Dangermouse1964 said:
...., he gets some body protection which means his top half of the chest.......no kneck head or lower torso are protected and the press say these boys die becase of gunshots or blast injuries .......no protection from it is the case they put aluminium doors on the armoured cars and alloy frames on wagons .....how the hell can they call this armoured
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That is absolutely friggin' disgusting!

All the best to your lads :thumbs:
and of course all the others in the "forces"
 
DM - Sorry, I was just highlighting the facts that the fantastic airforce you refered to in the original post is generaly overstretched and many of the aircraft are long since past their prime. I wasn't aware your lads were in the forces. If your lad is on the VC10 K4 tankers, just ask how old it is, and how many hours are on it!!! They were due to be retired this year, so it will be interesting if it happens or not.

I sincerely hope your lads stay safe and out of trouble, just like the rest of the troops.

Neil.
 
Cobra said:

That is absolutely friggin' disgusting!

All the best to your lads :thumbs:
and of course all the others in the "forces"
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Thanks Cobra it means loads to BT and me (at least one is back home and cant go back) served his three tours just hope Will does the same :thumbs:
 
singlespeed said:
DM - Sorry, I was just highlighting the facts that the fantastic airforce you refered to in the original post is generaly overstretched and many of the aircraft are long since past their prime. I wasn't aware your lads were in the forces. If your lad is on the VC10 K4 tankers, just ask how old it is, and how many hours are on it!!! They were due to be retired this year, so it will be interesting if it happens or not.

I sincerely hope your lads stay safe and out of trouble, just like the rest of the troops.

Neil.
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No probs Neil Mik is now out of it (12) years and leaving for his wedding but we have our youngest about to go into action in Afghan as a rifleman in the Scots 2 bttn in nov which we are worried about
 
Our army is the most well trained army in the world,because training is cheap, they could have the best equipment if the government would stop spending money on crap like 15 sets of traffic lights on every bloody roundabout in the country.

I for one am immensely proud of all the armed services, they should have the equipment they require.

did I read they're really short of Chinook helicopters and there are 10 that have never flown because the government wouldn't buy the software required to get them in the air when they were new, it's too late now as it all has to be re-written and is going to take months

It's a damn disgrace
 
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yes before anyone asks I was in the army, we are a Military orientated family
2Batt c corp
 
The RAF are very stretched, both manning and equipment (aircraft) wise, and it's the same accross the tri-services. My personal opinion is that if top brass spent more on gear and less on parties, over the top parades etc then we in the Army would be better off, and our brethren in the Air Force and Navy & RM would be too.
 
wack61 said:
Our army is the most well trained army in the world,because training is cheap, they could have the best equipment if the government would stop spending money on crap like 15 sets of traffic lights on every bloody roundabout in the country.

I for one am immensely proud of all the armed services, they should have the equipment they require.

did I read they're really short of Chinook helicopters and there are 10 that have never flown because the government wouldn't buy the software required to get them in the air when they were new, it's too late now as it all has to be re-written and is going to take months

It's a damn disgrace
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we have the best army,air and Naval service in the world.....we have the worst people in the world trying to run them.......like I said years ago let the armed forces run themselves
 
Actually, our kit now is the best it's ever been, apart from the lack of transport helicopters (the Chinooks in Afghan now are the very same ones used in the Falklands 27 years ago...lol)...

The new Osprey body-armour is the best on the market, though a little heavy in 60C temps - new plate-carriers with better 'breathe-ability' will help that and are being phased in right now.

The SA-80 rifle is brilliant in its A2 variant...

Boots: we get the choice of four different types: Hi-Tec Magnums, Lowa Desert Light; Lowa Desert patrol and Meindl Desert, as well as Cold Weather boots and are issued three of them according to needs...so that's all good...

The new Mk6-A helmet offers excellent ballistic protection compared to the older Mk6 (and we're not allowed to deploy with the old ones anyway).

Apart from wages (and we are the best-paid in NATO apart from the Canadians - I earn twice the salary of a US Army or Marine soldier of the same rank-grade), we're pretty well-off...

Accommodation could be better, but most young soldiers live in the new SLAM accommodation in most garrisons...it's the SNCOs that have to live in grotty quarters and Messes these days - the youngsters are well looked-after.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Personal kit is the best it's ever been.
sure: we need better vehicles and air-lift capability, but that stuff takes ages to trial, spec and build, and it's going as fast as it can.
yes we should scrap Eurofighter - the RAF have a hard-on for fast-fighter-jets and when did we last need any of those?
Spend the money instead on a viable multi-role aircraft lie the new joint VSTOL aircraft being tested now to replace Harrier...

And BIG aircraft carriers for the Navy - Force-projection is the key and we simply can't do it any more.

The Press love a story and this smacks of band-wagon jumping...
 
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surely the RAF is buying the eurofighter as we have shares in building it, they buy it then other countries buy it, I assumed it was all about worldwide sales
 
Arkady said:
Accommodation could be better, but most young soldiers live in the new SLAM accommodation in most garrisons...it's the SNCOs that have to live in grotty quarters and Messes these days - the youngsters are well looked-after.
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It's not just seniors quarters that are grotty :lol: The phases 2 trainees here have just had 2 brand new SLAM blocks built, each room with have access to the net and JPA via a laptop ion each room, 32 HD LCD TV on every room, and a shower with temperature control outside and a IR control system inside. My shower at home doesn't even work so we're having to use the bath everyday. This new accomodation is better not only than the junior ranks SLAM, but the seniors mess slam here (although they are building new mess accn). Youre quite right about pay though, the ammount I earn as a specialist is criminal, not that I'm complaining these days.
 
I have no gripe about buying kit for any of our armed services they do need it but £30m for a Typhoon and Gordon has ordered 30 of them in this economic climate cmon Gord lets share the money equally amongst all three services
 
The Eurofighter is very much suited to the Close Air Support role. It can carry more weapons than the Harrier, has more modern control systems and can stay in the air for longer.

It may well end up more suited to the role than the RN's F-35.
 
wack61 said:
surely the RAF is buying the eurofighter as we have shares in building it, they buy it then other countries buy it, I assumed it was all about worldwide sales
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There are certainly factors involved other than UK military need.
It is necessary to keep it in production if foreign sales are to be achieved.
 
I see what you're saying dangermouse but you have an awfully one sided view. A quick google shows the Navy is spending 3900million on two new aircraft carriers and up to 10 billion depending on how many JSF they buy. The Army will be spending 13 billion on new vehicles. You might not agree with what they are spending the cash on but they are not underfunded compared to any of the other forces.
 
Dangermouse1964 said:
Our great leader G Brown has decided to spend money on jets we do not need as we have a fantastic Air force with all the jets and fighters we need but our ground troops which are massively underfunded cant get a penny. Its about time Brown OPENED his eyes and did something apart from the latest scandal of his own staff squandering our money on imaginary mortgages and moat cleaning,.........give the money to the causes that really need it for protection from bullets not the odd weed growing in a pond.

Support for our troops
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The guy that claimed for his moat was a Tory, not a Labour MP.
 
KayJay said:
The guy that claimed for his moat was a Tory, not a Labour MP.
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I dont know who he was but still an MP leeching the system of all our hard earned personally I think all politicians are doing it one way or another:nono:
 
There are good MPs and there are bad ones. I don't think you can label them all as being the same. There definitely needs to be some sort of reform though and I can see where you are coming from, and I guess this is the problem parliament has now; regaining the trust of the people and making sure things are put right from now on.

Did anyone see Question Time this week? That was fantastic viewing.
 
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The best idea I heard for sorting out this second homes expenses thing was to build an MP hotel so they don't need a second home they come and stay next to the houses of parliament and live in their constituencies then expenses aren't an issue.

I unreservedly agree that our troops (in every service) should be supported in kit and in principle (by everyone whether the war is right or wrong the soldiers don't decide to fight)
 
I like the hotel idea, sort of like a halls of residence, but with smoked salmon and chablis rather than pot noodle and stella? :D
Not sure where next to the HoP you're building it though, it's pretty much full round that way!
 
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