'Sandy' Woodward dies

[SRMoore]

Admiral Sir John "Sandy" Woodward, who led the Navy task force to retake the Falkland Islands, has died aged 81 after a long illness.

Admiral Woodward commanded the naval force sent by Margaret Thatcher to the islands after they were invaded by Argentina in 1982.

To many he was the last of the Hood, Jervis, Nelson and Cunningham breed of British admirals and will be sadly missed.

[notenoughsaid]

To SRM ... I could not agree more .A latterday hero with regards to Naval Warfare. A great tactician.   RIP.....I only hope (and this not a political comment or dig) that present day politicians do not take water in and sell out the the good work carried out by all members of the Task Force.   "Rule Britannia", however like Sir "Sandy" himself latterly suggested this may be the end of an era... perhaps the sabre rattling by the Spanish re Gibraltar may prove his point. I am not a war mongering person but some things in life are well worth defending.  As said I hope he Rests in Peace.

[mk1]

David Cameron's vicious and unwarranted cuts to our armed forces pointing out that if the Falklands were re-occupied by Argentina now then it would be impossible to win them back.

So in this time of austerity and cutbacks exactly how many billions are UKIP going to spend  in order to keep a Union Jack flying on a piece of rock 10,000 (guess) miles away?

[SRMoore]

KD, as a former serviceman I am familiar with Admiral Woodward's scathing attacks on defence cuts.

I have always maintained that there was nothing 'strategic' about the recent defence review. It came about due to the terrible handling of the defence budget under the previous administration. Philip Hammond had an unenviable task set to him and I pity the man for having to do it.

As a former Green Howard I was left furious at the restructuring of the infantry which saw my regiment (the oldest unbroken regiment) resigned to the dustbin of history. For me it was a very emotive subject and one I made numerous representations to Mr Hammond in.

Despite my connections to the 'Howards' my heart always laid with the Royal Navy, an institution I always intended to join from 4 years old listening to stories of my grandfather who served aboard HMS Aurora (I guess I went tot the wrong recruiting desk!) so I have a very good understanding of our naval capability.

Reducing our carrier capability was a very risky move to make. One which is globally significant and leaves us at a short term disadvantage.
We are, however, NATO members and an agreement with France would allow us to call upon the Charles De Gaull to carrier support if we required it.
Some would argue that this simply isn't good enough and to be fair I'd agree with them to an extent.

Argentina are in no position to threaten the Falkland Islands. Their navy and air force has largely remained unchanged since the last conflict, despite their recent acquisition of 20 (approx) out of date fighters from Spain.
The Falkland Islands is currently the base of a squadron of Euro fighter Typhoons which are among the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world and a constant deployment of a Type 45 Destroyer, which alone has the capability to take out every fighter aircraft in South America let alone Argentina

Our armed forces are changing into a more specialised well equipped set of forces and it is worth remembering that we [Britain] once ruled a third of the population of the world with a smaller standing army than we had pre defence cuts.

[mk1]

constant deployment of a Type 45 Destroyer, which alone has the capability to take out every fighter aircraft in South America let alone Argentina

Yeah right!
I remember when the US F-15 was introduced. Claims were made that it was so powerful the USAAF only needed 3 aircraft. 1 in Europe , 1 in the Pacific and a spare in case one of the other 2 broke down.

it is worth remembering that we [Britain] once ruled a third of the population of the world with a smaller standing army than we had pre defence cuts.

So we could again invade China if they refused to buy Opium from us?
The world has changed. Quite a few of the  of Bongo Bongo lands are now  more powerful than us.