“Why can’t we just park a gunboat off Iran and shell the natives for a while?“

We used to. I had an uncle in the RN in the late 40’s through to the mid 70’s who told me about the only time he was on a ship that fired a shot in anger.
Some tin-pot navy gunboat was lobbing bullets at the ship he was on so the captain ordered to open fire & a single shot blew the gunboat out of the water.
Happy days.

No surprises, this proxy war has been brewing in Yemen for years and now as well as the Yanks, we’re kow-towing to the Saudis, along with the Americans for the price of their oil and foreign military sales. The RN is in no position to offer any global reach – original procurement of Type 45 destroyer was meant to be 12 boats, cut to 9 and then 6 delivered, but we’re lucky if 2 are in a working condition. The same is going on for new frigates – to replace the current Type 23 which are well beyond their intended design life and are rusting to oblivion. Even if the RN had the boats, they haven’t got the personnel to look after them – haemorrhaging personnel in the last few years. In the future we’ll be lucky if we can muster a half-empty patrol boat.

Dovebiker, only a third of units are meant to be available at any one time. One deployed, one just returned and in re-fit and the other training up to deploy.

Don’t worry Boris will sort it all out

Some tin-pot navy gunboat was lobbing bullets at the ship he was on so the captain ordered to open fire & a single shot blew the gunboat out of the water.

That sounds like it be the tale from an old sea dog

Friend of mine was serving on HMS Liverpool when it was “engaged” by Libyan land forces back in 2011 resulting in the RN using its main gun for the first time in ages.

His version of being “engaged” is very different from what the history books say – any excuse to pop off a few shells. Apparently the ship won that particular fight, bearing in mind that the other side’s rounds were falling short by a few miles… ;o)

Gunz

Member

Dovebiker, only a third of units are meant to be available at any one time. One deployed, one just returned and in re-fit and the other training up to deploy.

Yup, but that in a nutshell is why 6 really expensive state of the art boats, isn’t that useful. But that’s the navy way, we need to have the shiniest and the best regardless of whether that’s actually useful for the role.

(aside; every time a new round of commissioning comes up, it turns out that the government and MOD simultaneously believe 2 things- one, that our needs can’t be met by any ships anyone else makes and two, that once we design this ship to do a job that’s apparently so different from what every other navy wants, we’ll still be able to sell it to other people with different needs)

(aside; every time a new round of commissioning comes up, it turns out that the government and MOD simultaneously believe 2 things- one, that our needs can’t be met by any ships anyone else makes and two, that once we design this ship to do a job that’s apparently so different from what every other navy wants, we’ll still be able to sell it to other people with different needs)

standard in the MOD. I remember using a load of kit with the SF boys years ago and it was lovely, it was effectively off the shelf kit, slightly modified (radios, anti-mine type things) and helmets and armour. In true MOD style, once it’s been trialled and accepted, the MOD tell the manufacturer to change the entire spec and triple its cost and reduce it’s functionality.

About the only time the MOD have ever been able to get good kit without all the bull, was around 2006/7 onwards when UOR (urgent operational requirements) were thrown around then all manner of kit crops up that actually worked (designed and built in a fraction of the normal procurement time) and didn’t cost a fortune..