Last week some Russian Navy vessels including the 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier Admiral Kutznetsov approached within 30 miles of the Scotch coastline in the Moray Firth without a by your leave to any of our 430 Admirals.
Because a Nimrod MRA4 was unavailable at nearby RAF Kinloss, due to scrapping and closure respectively, (whether an airworthy Nimrod would have been available anyway is a moot point), it was feared that an invasion was underway and so HMS York was ordered to steam up from the English Channel forthwith to see the naughty Russkies off (who could have mistaken Ross Shire on their charts for a home port) rather like HMS Cumberland's 34 hour marathon from refitting in the Falklands in order take part in the Battle of the River Plate. The naughty Russians were spotted chucking bin bags overboard but no action was taken for two reasons: the USN chucked bin Laden overboard in the Indian Ocean; the Environmental Protection Agency doesn't prosecute fly-tipping Travellers.
Why? The RAF could have sent a Typhoon to investigate and take photos, or a Hercules or the Andrew could have tasked a Merlin to circle the fleet. Or the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency could have sent one of its four ships or two Cessna 406s based at Inverness Airport for a look around.
Instead, HMS York burnt thousands of gallons of fuel unnecessarily, just so a Royal Navy ship could be sunk if the Russians decided to make Wee Eck's day and give him independence from England at last.
Why can't sensible people take charge of defence and spend other people's money prudently?
2 comments:
I'm hoping we had someone under the water keeping a somewhat secretive eye on that rustbucket of a carrier.
Shh, the Silent Service (but not for much longer-soon to be refitted with hairdriers). At least our submarines still possess something (tigerfish torpedo) that could sink a big boat. The RAF lost interest in anti-shipping when it retired its Tornado GR1B/Sea Eagle combo (without upgrading them to GR4B standard)after the FAA scrapped the Shar and failed to order (Portillo's fault) a proper replacement for Nimrod MR2 and its Harpoons.
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