BL> I've never forgiven the bloody Argies for taking the Faulklands.
BL> We were all set to buy Britain's jump-jet carrier (I forget
BL> the name, Wonderful?) when Maggie Thatcher suddenly realised
BL> she needed it to stage any sort of attack offshore!

BL> I know carriers make good targets, but I don't
BL> believe you can have a serious Navy without one.

Welp, we cant afford a navy that serious. It really is that basic Bob.

BL> You just *have* to carry your own fighter aircraft,
BL> or any second-rate enemy can knock the hell out of
BL> you with any cheap plane better than a helicopter.

And if Maggie had tried to use that against say the Israelis,
the whole fucking fleet would have gone gurgle gurgle in no time.
The only reason they prevailed is because the Argys were hopeless.

The world has moved on Bob, that sort of thing is now indefensible unless
you operate on the scale the US does with full scale carrier battle groups.
We havent got a fucking hope in hell of affording anything remotely like that.

So we keep our planes on an unsinkable aircraft carrier and carry on regardless

And if we werent such wimps we would buy some decent nuke
missiles cheap and we'd be laughing regardless of what any tin
pot country around us could ever to to threaten us. MUCH cheaper.
@EOT:

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