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   Ravi Nayyar (ravirockks@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 09:31:13 JST Ravi Nayyar

   'When deployed on a multinational exercise the army is unable to communicate with its Nato counterparts without the US providing communications equipment ...

   'The only Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) supply ship, Fort Victoria, is undergoing maintenance in Liverpool until the end of the year. Two similar vessels were sold to Egypt and replacements are not due until 2031.

   'While the Royal Navy has two aircraft carriers, it has relied upon US F-35 jets to fly off them in the past because the UK has been slow to order its own F-35s.

   'Although the UK has six destroyers only two of them are currently operational, he said, and are unable to defeat such complex threats [PRC ballistic missiles].

   'Britain is spending millions of pounds a year to send pilots overseas for training because the RAF does not have enough fast-jet training aircraft available.

   The UK PM has the right idea in spending less on ODA and more on defence. Also, the concerns expressed by sources here are the same expressed by a chunk of Indian DIB Twitter re the Indian MoD/military sacrificing purely indigenous capability development for foreign gear (eg the foreshadowed Stryker deal neglecting indigenous WhAPs, a superior platform for use along the LAC).
   https://archive.md/a6TbP

   • Embed this notice
     Ravi Nayyar (ravirockks@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 09:31:13 JST Ravi Nayyar

     in reply to

     'Many European countries would struggle to produce one combat-capable brigade each ... any deployment [to Ukraine] would need significant American support not only in the form of specific “enablers” ... but also the promise of back-up should Russia attack.

     'Meeting NATO’s existing war plans—with America present—would require Europe to spend 3% of GDP on defence ... making good American shortfalls would require a figure well above 4% ...

     '... European armies struggle to recruit enough people even at their current sizes.

     'Only some air forces, like those of Sweden, have maintained pilot proficiency for demanding high-intensity aerial warfare.

     'But Britain, he says, would probably be incapable of running a complex air operation on the same scale and intensity as that of Israel’s air war in Gaza and Lebanon.

     'Europe needs America for rocket artillery, longer-range air defence and stealthy aircraft. Even for simpler weapons ... European countries have turned to Brazil, Israel and South Korea for armoured vehicles and artillery shells.

     '[British Storm Shadow needs] American geospatial data for effective targeting. Britain would have to spend billions to buy replacement images ... or turn to France ...

     '[UK] leases the [nuclear] missiles from America ... American co-operation for components like the re-entry vehicle which houses the warhead'.
     https://archive.md/3J7Yw

   • Embed this notice
     Ravi Nayyar (ravirockks@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 09:31:13 JST Ravi Nayyar

     in reply to

     'Europe’s defence companies, spread across different countries and reliant on small national orders, lack the scale required to compete with their American counterparts.

     'Europe must allow for major consolidation in its defence industry ... the European Investment Bank must change its [ESG] guidelines to allow it to lend more to the sector. You can forget about funding the green transition if Russian forces are marching on Tallinn while America looks on. [BINGO!]

     'An increase in defence investment will mean less money for social spending. The deployment of men and women in uniform must be treated as the potentially life-and-death decision it is. But we do not have time to waste on indecision'.
     https://archive.md/unXhP

   • Embed this notice
     Ravi Nayyar (ravirockks@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 09:31:37 JST Ravi Nayyar

     in reply to

     Critical point that, if the non-US NATO members want to defend the continent alone, they'll need to stitch _everyone's_ patchwork of systems/platforms together, versus existing reliance on cohesive, integrated US military/intel capabilities.
     https://youtu.be/7giYIisLuaA

   • Embed this notice
     Ravi Nayyar (ravirockks@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 24-Mar-2025 09:31:37 JST Ravi Nayyar

     in reply to

     'When US foreign policy abruptly changes ... contractors, spare parts and badly needed software updates suddenly disappear. Within weeks, more than half the aircraft are grounded [in Afghanistan].

     '... many European governments are feeling buyers’ remorse for decades of US arms purchases ... [But little/no remorse re economic dependence on the CCP.]

     'It is not as simple as a kill switch ... Most European militaries depend heavily on the US for communications support, for electronic warfare support, and for ammunition resupply in any serious conflict.

     'The plane [F-35] relies on continuous updates and maintenance support from the US through its Autonomic Logistics Information System — which is to be replaced by a successor programme known as Odin, the Operational Data Integrated Network.

     '... no US ally has Washington’s level of access to the source code for the system [F-35]. [Israel is perhaps the closest to an example of autonomy with their arrangement for their Adirs.]

     '... Reaper drone ... relies on US-provided satellite communication links and software support. Italy and France needed a lengthy US permission process to equip the drones with missiles.

     'US defence companies have long used the implicit security guarantee of Washington’s favour as a marketing tool for their bigger-ticket items such as fighter planes'.
     https://archive.md/GCWGk