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Hearts of oak

By lex, on December 2nd, 2007

And ships of clay:

The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under

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December 2nd, 2007 | Category: Military

11 comments to Hearts of oak

  • AW1 Tim
    December 2, 2007 at 11:19 am

    Lex,

    Indeed, now would be a pretty good time for Argentina to reclaim the Falklands. There’d be not a darned thing the Brits could do about it, unless they wanted to nuke the place.

  • Flatlander
    December 2, 2007 at 12:38 pm

    The recent capitulation of the Brit boarding party to the Iranians in Iraqi waters, would seem to indicate that indeed the hearts are the fundamental issue. Such behavior would have been incomprehensible to the British Navy in any other generation.

    Maybe this is the inevitable result of decades of BBC brainwashing and self-flaggelation.

  • Marine6
    December 2, 2007 at 12:56 pm

    One of the real problems with the decline of the Royal Navy is that they have historically been a great innovator in the field of naval aviation.

    As Lex might confirm, it was the Brits who came up with the canted deck and the frenzel lens landing system. While not everybody is a fan of the Harrier (Hey, did I tell you I can hover?) it is still a remarkable aircraft.

    In fact, during WW II our Navy had given up on operating the F4U Corsair from carriers until the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm showed that that it was possible.

    One can only wonder what Horatio Lord Nelson would say. It probably wouldn’t be saluatory.

  • ELP
    December 2, 2007 at 4:24 pm

    The whole MOD is being cut to ribbons.

  • Skippy-san
    December 2, 2007 at 6:48 pm

    Some of those same conclusions could be applied to the US Navy-vis a vis the total force structure required to execute all of our commitments-in particular our continuing ignoring of ASW.

  • Pingjockey
    December 2, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    Indeed the overall lowering of the accepted level of experience of our total force with eventually result in a lesson learned in blood (as they all are). Someone will be fired, whomever the lucky ceasear of the day is and then the champion will appear on the scene to reverse our manning woes at the expense of some other program. I for one cant wait for the operational commander to tie a ship to the pier and use the manpower to augment his Squadron. That would take unheard of balls. And would be a career ender most likely.

  • Chris Parkes
    December 2, 2007 at 7:33 pm

    Don’t forget the steam catapult.

  • John
    December 2, 2007 at 9:00 pm

    What Skippy said!

    I fear the RN has yet again served as our model with their latest “accomplishment”, at least for the Congresscritters who slight national defense while spending lavishly on fluffy social programs to get themselves reelected.

    The “surrender at all costs” idiots like Reid and Pelosi will never allow us to recover, and if her Inevitableness seizes the office she covets (but is so woefully unprepared for) we are doomed.

    Hearts of oak, indeed, but they don’t float without a boat.

  • Mike M.
    December 3, 2007 at 5:34 pm

    What scares me is that the U.S. Navy isn’t all that much better off. Goldwater-Nichols has got to go….it’s strangling us.

  • Therapist1
    December 4, 2007 at 3:12 pm

    What a sad state of affairs. A mere one hundred years ago and the sea was theirs.

    Good point Skippy and Mike.
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