That would seem to be the mindset of the Brits, who are busily scrapping their fleet of Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft. The British, who once viewed the seas as virtually their sovereign territory, have now ceded that fully to the Americans.
They might as well scrap the rest of their Navy in the process. They probably will, sooner or later. The Brits are retiring their Harriers, which means that they will not have any naval jet fighters, which is just as well, as they won't have any carriers. The F-35B won't be available to them until 2020, if at all.
Argentina's mistake was that they moved a few decades too early By 2015, the Argentinians will be able to re-invade and this time, there will be fuck-all that the Brits will be able to do about it. The Limeys long ago got rid of their long-range bomber fleet. They'll have no air support, no maritime patrol capability; any ships they would send would be operating nearly blind. They'll have no good way of resupplying the Falklands, even if the garrison was able to hold out.
The Falklanders had better plan on learning Spanish or they had best salt away enough money to live on for awhile after they are forcibly repatriated to Old Blighty. Because next time, the Royal Navy isn't coming.
Actions, Meet Consequences
37 minutes ago
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It'll be interesting to see if the US follows suit in 20 years or so. Seems like declining imperial powers eventually disband the assets that gave them "reach" in the old days. France went the same way with their navy in the early 1900's (back then they had no long range bomber force to lose, of course).
You know, I've been asking the same question and coming up with the same answer.
I even asked an English friend about it to make sure I had it right. The UK can't feed itself off what it produces. It must import foodstuffs. I thought I remembered that about WWII.
An island nation that can't feed itself and can't defend its shipping.
I guess we really don't learn from history.
Don Brown
Don, no, we don't. The problem for the Brits is that if they change their minds in 10 or 20 years and try to reconstitute a fleet of maritime patrol aircraft, they will have lost their corporate knowledge on how to operate them.
Any 737 type-rated Boeing driver can probably fly a P-8. The trick is knowing how to employ the sensors and utilize the weapons. If you want to be able to do something and do it well, you have to keep doing it.
(This is also why we need to keep building SSNs.)
If you look at this article in the UK Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/27/nimrod_scrappage/). The major reason the they are getting scrapped is the planes cost more than the Space Shuttle (for EACH !). Also as the article put it they provide employment for antique aircraft restorers as any spare parts have to made there is no commonality with anything flying.
Thing is, though, that they already built the airplanes *and* the British government has not made any move to purchase a suitable replacement aircraft for the MPA mission, whether a Boeing P-8 or an Airbus C-295 or any of the handful of other makes out there.
Maritime patrol with tincans and embarked helos does not cut it.
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