UK offers troops

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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European leaders meet to discuss Ukraine as UK troop offer hardens regional resolve
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/fast-moving-ukraine-diplomacy-means-europeans-must-do-more-official-says-2025-02-17/
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has become the first European leader to say he is ready to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, making the commitment ahead of an emergency leaders’ meeting in Paris to discuss Europe’s role in a ceasefire.

Starmer’s comments underlined a growing realization among European nations that they will likely have to play a larger role in ensuring Ukraine’s security as Washington works alone with Russia on a potential end to the three-year conflict

Sweden would consider contributing to post-war peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Monday, adding that negotiations would need to progress before any such decision was taken.

DB2

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When news that the UK would be at the front of the queue to provide troops for a Ukraine peacekeeping force, possibly as many as 20,000, a contact from army headquarters at Andover messaged me: “Where’s this 20,000-figure come from? Who’s briefing this? We couldn’t do this in a month of Sundays!”

The next few days saw this “offer” drop to 10,000 to 12,000 troops for the as-yet-unspecified ground force – but the panic among army planners was much the same: there has been no requirement for such a deployment, the army is not set up for such numbers and has not been funded to do so.

And, worse, the army is at a nadir as regards its capability to provide robust, capable, war-fighting forces of the type that would be needed for Ukraine – equipment is either ancient, non-existent, yet-to-arrive; ammunition stocks would not last a week if push came to shove; and communications systems are old and flaky. It might not go too far to suggest that the British army is at its lowest nadir since June 1940, after Operation Dynamo saw the British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk.

DB2

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Keep in mind, the UK made a significant deployment to Afghanistan, including a young officer named “Wales”. That being said, the army has been drawn down from 100K to 70K since then.

By 2010, UK troop numbers reached their peak with around 10,000 troops deployed across Afghanistan.

Steve

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Just sold my (shared with older brother) last significant RE asset in the USA, a condo*** insanely well located near the ocean. With rich refugees from the Palisades fire disaster beating on the door of the condo management, we decided to drop our plans to do a renovation and sell now while the (ahem) chaparral is still hot.

I am putting the money into renovating an ancient stone home in Mallorca, Spain, and into purchasing still more land with solid water rights near a still hard to access (surfing) beach in Oaxaca, Mexico.

We have rapidly increasing uncertainty (on top of all the rest, a new Pope will be on the scene in two months, most likely young, vigorous, and Woke) and insanity (just look at the photos of the high and powerful, and then of the steadly increasing number of sick, starving, war tossed, hopeless and angry) in the world.

I do not need to grow my wealth further, but to protect it as a trustee. My oil and gas working interests income has increased obscenely (it is the exact sort of medium sour grade mostly from Canada now threatened to go into short supply, needed to blend with the light sweet making up most of USA production so as to match input specs for most USA refineries)

When husband and I are both dead it will almost all go to assisting

impoverished Mexican college students
emergency help for gaylesbiantrans kids worldwide

and those assets normally are not correlated with the securities markets (which make up most of the current endowment income to the relevant charities etc)

***Dad bought the condo super cheap during a RE collapse in Los Angeles in the mid 1970’s, later joined by Mom as they ended their separation in the 1990’s, Dad passed, and then Mom’s long time good friend “Geri” from church moved in and stuck with her as Mom weakened and died. Geri (aged 84, still hale, driving cars and golf balls, and readying to do “god ordained mandatory protest” organizing and marching) has now moved to live with and life coach a struggling young great niece of hers in Pennsylvania.

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They merely need to provide Ukraine with 20-30 nuclear-tipped missiles with a range to virtually all of Russia. Watch what Poot-Poot does when the missiles get delivered and set up in Ukraine BEFORE he is notified.

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You don’t foresee a “Benedict XVII”?

Steve

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Bob you keep feeding us nonsense. The Independent is an Irish paper that will pull England’s chain at every juncture.

As of July 2024, the United Kingdom’s armed forces had 213 Challenger 2 tanks in service. The UK is also planning to acquire 148 Challenger 3 tanks, with the first ones expected to be operational in 2027.

Explanation

  • The Challenger 2 is the UK’s main battle tank. It has been used in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Iraq.

  • The Challenger 3 is the next generation of the Challenger 2. It will have advanced armor, firepower, and technology.

  • In 2021, the UK placed an £800 million contract with Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land to acquire the Challenger 3 tanks.

  • The Challenger 3 tanks are expected to be in service by the end of 2030.

  • The Challenger 3 tanks will be tested under operational conditions before they are delivered to the British Army.

  • The Challenger 3 tanks will support jobs in Telford, Gateshead, Bristol, and Bovington.

According to the latest data, the UK has approximately 185,980 people in uniform, which includes both regular forces and volunteer reserves within the British Armed Forces.

Breakdown:

  • Regular Forces: 140,300
  • Gurkhas: 4,140
  • Volunteer Reserves: 33,210

Note: This figure includes personnel from the British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force.

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No, I do not. I have been estimating votes in the College of Cardinals ever since Francis took the tiara. I am convinced that Francis hung on until he was convinced he had appointed enough new cardinals to almost insure a successor closer to the direction of his own agenda. Then, wishing to avoid both his own probably soon onsetting inability to lead the church, and his dislike of the course Benedict had to take, Francis set out to work himself to death.

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You are trading in one dinosaur for another.

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Good to know, although it does say Independent UK.

This article also has reservations about the tank force:

Commenting on the putative plans, MP and Chair of the Defence Committee Tobias Ellwood told Army Technology the UK’s fleet of Challenger 2 MBTs and Warrior AFVs were a ‘critical, yet neglected’ part of the British Army

DB2

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Ah mea culpa it is the English betting sheet turned online paper only.

The Independent in Ireland is another matter.

You are still talking a rag.

The Irish Independent is not a rag but the Irish public have a lot of fun at England’s expense.

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And then there is air power.

The RAF is facing a pilot shortage after a diversity hiring scheme backfired…The Air Force is so short-staffed that candidates who were previously rejected are being urged to reapply, as well as older applicants who have experience in “flying-related roles”…

Mark Francois, the shadow Armed Forces minister, told the paper: “The RAF’s availability of combat pilots has been hit by a perfect storm: including woke manipulation of recruiting practices, the revival of civilian airlines post-Covid and technical issues with training aircraft, particularly engine reliability on the Hawk T2. “All this really matters. If we are now going to see ‘jets in the sky’ defending any Ukrainian peace deal, then we need enough trained pilots to fly them…

The shortage comes after the RAF’s diversity drive was found to be unlawful to white male would-be recruits… During the drive, leaked emails showed air chiefs were told to stop choosing “useless white male pilots” in an attempt to improve diversity. In 2023, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton apologized following an inquiry into the bias.

DB2

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Would that be the person who would hold that post, if his party was the one in power, thus has a remit to make whatever the current government does look bad?

Reality check. Military budgets have been so small in the UK that only one of their two aircraft carriers even has an air group, and there have been motions to scrap both of the carriers, commissioned in 2017 and 2019, to cut costs.

Steve

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Indeed, which supports the problems with the UK offer to send military to the Ukraine.

DB2

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Yup. The Beeb has talked about that too. When the Brits deployed to Afghanistan, their full time army numbered 100,000, and that deployment stretched them. Now, the active duty army has been drawn down to 70,000.

Steve

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Another Navy example, about frigates…

The Royal Navy has so few sailors that it has to decommission two warships to staff its new class of frigates, The Telegraph can reveal.

HMS Westminster, which was recently refurbished at huge expense to the taxpayer, and HMS Argyll will be decommissioned this year. The crews will be sent to work across the new fleet of Type 26 frigates as they come into service.

It comes as the Armed Forces experience a significant recruitment crisis, with the Navy having suffered a collapse in the flow of new recruits into the service. A defence source told The Telegraph: “We will have to take manpower from one area of the Navy in order to put into a new area of the force.”

DB2

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Meanwhile, in Germany…

An official report on the state of the German military painted a grim picture on Tuesday, with a whopping 28% of positions among the lower enlisted ranks unfilled as of the end of 2024.

The numbers were slightly better at higher service tiers, but the Bundeswehr was still missing nearly 20% of the required commissioned officers, the document said…

Some have called for restoring the general conscription for males which was suspended in 2011. But Commissioner Högl said simply reviving this system was “not a good idea.” “This would be too much for the Bundeswehr to handle,” she told reporters while presenting her report in Berlin, noting that there were currently not enough available facilities and instructors.

DB2

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