Mandy Lifeboats

It's true and widely reported. https://www.eurasiantimes.com/f-16-fighting-falcons-nato-boss-ruffles-kremlin/

The plane was 200km behind the front lines. I am no expert on air defences but Wikipedia tells me that the Patriot system has a range of 180km. I doubt Ukraine would have set up a Patriot system literally within sight of the Russian front lines. Surely it would have been at least 30km back?? So it's something with a range of about 250km?

I think a missile fired from Ukrainian airspace (whether from an F16 or from something else). I don't think it's a coincidence that NATO recently stated that Ukraine has the right to strike targets on Russian territory. That was a clear indication that NATO is now happy for NATO supplied weapons to hit mother Russia.

Russia has lost another AWACS plane. It was well within Russian territory. We may have just seen the first F16 kill of the war.

I worked in civil defence in the 1990s. There was not a computer to be seen. What was laughingly described as "the doomsday computer" was actually a series of slide rules and plastic disks. Dyno tape would have been am improvement. Have a look at the "Weapons Effect Calculators" in this link. Those are what we used to make life or death decisions. https://orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/nuclear-slide-rules/index.html

We have 4. He oldest was built in the 80s and entered service in the 90s, Our replacements aren't due to enter service until the 2030s with the existing subs expected to remain until the 2060s. That's awful.

Sanctions do not prevent exports or imports. They simply make imports more expensive and exports cheaper. Russia once sold its fossil fuels to the west. The transport distance was short. The price was good. They now sell the same goods to India and China. The transport distances are long. The price has reduced. The difference between the revenue received is the impact of sanctions. The references to the Russian economy being high performing are laughable. Statistically its correct but you need to consider how it's been achieved. 1. Expenditure on prisons has dropped dramatically because so many prisoners went to the military. 2. Unemployment is low because of all the dead young Russians. 3. Foreign companies were forced to sell businesses and assets to Russians for 10% of their true value. 4. Russian companies and citizens were obligated to exchange their euros, pounds and dollars for rubles at an artificial exchange rate. 5. Manufacturing is booming. But its not being sold. Its literally booming on the battlefields. 6. There are lots of Western goods in Russia that are still within their shelf life. They have yet to experience BMW cars tripling in price because they have to be imported via China or spare parts for their Boeing being made out of scrap in Turkmenistan. Russia's economy is fine if you ignore the high inerest rates, high inflation, loss of foreign currency reserves, the worst performing currency in the world, skills shortages and tens of thousands of severly disabled young Russians who will require state support for the rest of their lives.

Agreed but...... 1. The last test was 8 years ago. 2. There have been around 200 successful test firings. 3. The USA launched a Trident from a sub in 2023 without any problems. The test failure made good headlines for the press.

Exactly. There wouldn't even have been a warhead on the missile. That fault was with the missile. That fault might not be present in any of the others. If you are sitting in a bath of petrol It doesn't matter if the first match fails to light.

All missiles (including nukes) have a failure rate. Even if 95% of our nukes failed we still have more nukes than 95% of the world combined. Having a single failure is inconsequential. Especially when the fault could have already been identified and rectified. Even if the nukes hit their targets there will be plenty that don't detonate. It's exceptionally hard to set off a nuke. In the big scheme of things, nukes haven't been tested to the same extent that we would test any other weapon. Very, very, very few tests have been a true simulation of a real nuke on a long range missile hitting a land target. It's just too expensive, difficult and dangerous. The test failure is embarrassing but inconsequential.

Do they pay the £30 directly into your bank account or is it cash on the day to ensure you turn up?

A man collapsed unconscious onto the luggage carousel at the airport. He's okay. He came around a few minutes later.

@Chindie You are an eloquent and intelligent poster. Use those skills to help yourself. Write to your MP. Write to the Health Minister. Write to the PM. Write to the prospective MP candidates in your ward. Write to the Chief Executive of the NHS. Contact some mental health charities. Write to the Daily Mirror. Ask some friends or relatives to also raise the issue on your behalf. When you don't get the replies you want - write again. Make yourself the biggest pain in the @r$e possible. When we get a new government- Write again. You need to push the issue and we can all see that you have the skills to do that.

Jeff Hardy's broken nose. Ouch I doubt he' spent too long finding some strong pain killers.

I always like to give taxi drivers a tip. " Use deodorant".

This is one of those historical "facts" that is now seen as propaganda. Many say that we were never in danger of losing the Battle of Britain. Our Spitfire production was very good. Most of our pilots that bailed out returned to their units to fight again. Whereas German pilots became POW. Our radar network was superb (for that point in history) and Spitfire production quickly increased to sufficient levels. Had the RAF been in danger of being eradicated they would have moved the airfields from the SE to the NW which would have made them relatively safe. The German decision to switch to bombing cities at night was because they miscalculated the number of fighters we had left. Due to a blunder in paperwork they mistook the number of remaining Spitfires for the number of remaining fighters. That's one hell of a mistake.

Elon Musk's Starlink will require 42,000 satellites to provide worldwide coverage. There are already over 5,000 in orbit. How could Russia take out a significant percentage very quickly? I think we can guess. Let's see how the childish Musk reacts to a threat that will. requires the US government to protect his asset. Hopefully the US military will charge him an exorbitant fee.

Wednesday - Russia puts nukes in Space. Thursday - The Clangers apply for NATO membership.

I agree. This is a thread to discuss hypothetical scenarios.

This is the other defence I mentioned. Pershore's was one of the British "stop lines". The stop lines were lines of fortifications built to counter an invasion. Pershore's main defence was centred around the river bridge. The gun emplacement still exists as do the anti tank obstacles. The fortifications were designed so that they could be spun around to face an invasion from the South Coast or the Welsh Coast. https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/dob/ai_full_r.cfm?refno=9017 If you are in the area to stalk Toyah (she lives in the house by the Zebra crossing in the town centre) have a look at the defences.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Aberdovey still has pill boxes that were placed to deter an invasion from Ireland. I spent many a happy hour shooting pretend Germans from these whilst on holiday. It drove the wife mad. https://www.tracesofwar.com/sights/23849/Pillbox-FW3-26-Aberdovey.htm If you are in the area, climb to the top of one of the hills overlooking the bay. You can see all the defences.

It was very much a threat to tie up British Forces. This was the plan - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Green_(Ireland) The other plan was this one that had the support of the IRA. It was even less credible. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Kathleen

@Panto_Villan I have been enjoying the posts so much that I forgot to like any of them. This is a fantastic discussion of "what ifs" but also on the actual history of the time. More!

We are talking a hypothetical situation and therefore we don't know the dates. But let's assume we are talking the later half of 1940. Europe had fallen. We left a large amount of equipment at Dunkirk. The Battle of Britain was underway. The Blitz had begun. The Nazis had not attacked Russia. We were fighting the Italians and Germans in North Africa. Japan was about to begin its campaign against the British Empire. At this point in history I believe our forces were at their very weakest and stretched to the limit. Who knows what would have happened if the Nazis had not invaded the USSR and not declared war on the USA simply to help the Japanese** ** They didn't look very Arian to me.

These are all very good points but the army, navy and airforce units required were already deployed elsewhere. Taking Ireland would have been very easy. Blockading Ireland would have been easy. But we didn't have half the Royal Navy available to do that. Which areas would you have neglected in on order to provide the forces required? The navy was escorting incoming convoys, hunting the Turpitz, Bismark and Graf Spee, hunting u-boats, protecting the channel, protecting the empire, fighting the Japanese in the far east and fighting the Italian navy in the Mediterranean and protecting convoys shipping arms to Russia. This thread is one of hypothetical scenarios. So........let's say we began preparations to invade Ireland causing the Irish to join the Axis. We then used the Royal Navy to cut off Ireland and conquer it quite easily but taking naval loses doing so. We deploy the army to suppress a large and well armed IRA who are still fighting in Ireland and commiting acts of sabotage throughout the UK. As a result, it allows the Italians and Germans to remain in North Africa. They are now heading east towards Egypt, Palestine and Persia's oil fields. What happens next?