Ahem.
... the UK government has announced arrangements which will allow Britain and France to share the only aircraft carrier owned by a western European nation.Wait for it .... wait for it ....
At present, the French carrier is moored off Libya, with its aircraft leading the valiant NATO effort against Gaddafi.
Following this, it will withdraw to Portsmouth for maintenance and thorough fumigation, in order to dispel the waft of garlic which permeates its decks.Don't laugh ... well, OK - laugh a bit.
Behind all good humor is a tad of truth. 20 years ago - if you said we would be relying on AN-124 in order to fight a war in Central Asia for 10-years ...
"The want of frigates, destroyers, cruisers, submarines, aircraft carriers, auxiliaries, and naval aircraft is graven upon my heart..."
ReplyDeleteHey! That's my line, I swiped it fair and square. Dead on, URR.
ReplyDeleteIrony = this one and only French CVN gets hit by an Exocet cruise missile ! France has sold Exocets indiscriminately all over the world for 3 decades. Recall that USS STARK, FFG-31, was hit by 2 French Exocet anti-ship missiles in 1978. Fired by Iraq's air force.
ReplyDeleteEven more Ironic, CVN Charles Degaulle gets hit by a 2 decade old French Exocet fired from the back of a pickup truck, just like the Exocet that sank a British destroer off the Falklands in 1982.
Irony, indeed !
Supreme irony - US F/A-18s outgunned by Iranian F-14s... they still have few Phoenix probably... Imagine the the mess if some E-2s got hit in a start of Gulf melee...
ReplyDeleteAdmiral Nelson just jumped off his column.
ReplyDeleteOKAY CDR. Europe's turning into a continent of wussies, blabbering octogenarians and hatebeards, but five years ago I would have said the US was 25 years behind.
RIGHT NOW, I'd say the US is only 15 years behind. To the best of my knowledge, no single euro warship has been named after a union boss yet.
Frigates ORP Kazimierz Pulaski and ORP Tadeusz Kosciuszko would fit as USS too... :P
ReplyDeleteour subs go by the birds of prey and wild animals:
ORP Orzel (Eagle) , ORP Sep (Vulture), ORP Bielik (Sea Eagle) ORP Sokol (Falcon, )..ORP Kondor (Condor).
Checked the roster, not a single modern politician even amongst auxiliaries...