Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Remember when Belgium refused to supply ammunition ?

With the government , for some reason, pushing the end of UK independent and secure defence manufacturing capability its maybe a time to remember the lessons of the Falklands war.

1) Having in house capability was key - air to air refuelling and goodness knows what else was possible thanks to having the capacity and capability under national control.
2) A close trusting alliance with the US was key. From the latest sidewinder missiles to landing strips and many other assists, our US allies did not let us down - even if some disgraceful US politicians like Mrs Kirkpatrick wanted to.
3) You can't rely on our European partners. Ireland and Italy weren't even that keen on sanctions against Argentina. And Belgium refused to supply ammunition ( a capability we had lost since we thought we could trust them ).

The EADS surrender runs against all three of these lessons.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Given the chance, Ireland would again back Argentina over the UK.