Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

Dose this bloke have a off switch. On and on and on,

I don't mind input but mother of Jesus you don't half go on. And no need for the insults.

Don't worry about lawn pissers, they are part of life. More interestingly we need to see ourselves as part of European Defence and security. In this regard we need to emulate countries of equal populations and sense of Duty. Norway, and Denmark have 5.5 million population and both have AF around 3,500 personnel and both have 100 + fighter aircraft with a support of Rotary's and Transport Aircraft.

We are neutered by confusing our status as a non-belligerent as a dividend to NOT requiring an ability to deter occupation or become a satellite against our neighbours.

Unfortunately you cannot pick the IRISH ONLY bits from the manuals on warfare. We were always told we are not a tank country and sure we are a threat to nobody. The risk is plain with pre-emption and associated risks world wide. We are a focal plug in point for most trans-Atlantic cabling and surface shipping routes to and from Europe to the world. All East and West bound Air routes pass over our EEZ and territory.

We can of course do nothing hoping for spill over assistance due to the Brit obligation to defend the 6 Counties, and as they are in NATO everyone else might join in and we can do the ATCP bit. In any event our ROLE must be finally settled or we are running an Organisation for no purpose.

Of course you can for Christ's sake!

Research in any field builds on what has gone before and that includes looking at best practices, lessons and outcomes for foreign militaries in Countries of a similar size and profile.

Why do you think the invitations from the Government to form the Commission on Defence *specifically* sought the participation of former senior flag officers in other small and / or neutral States in Europe?

We were lucky to have the former Chief of Defence of Norway and former Chief of Operations of Finnish Defence who also served as Director of the EU Military Staff and they were there for a very good reason.

Just the one point. New Zealand realising that it is an island decided to have all three services suitably sized-Army, navy and Air force while not exactly the same size are each well proportioned. The navy is around 2,200 compared to our 1000.

Finland has everything that floats under the naval umbrella so they have minelayers and survey ships in quantity to do any HADR jobs. Janes shows scores of vessels in addition to warships under naval control in Finland.

Probably because you are going around calling people "fools" and reporting them and expecting them to be banned because you disagree with their opinion, unfortunately for you this isnt North Korea and the sense of entitlement you carry around doesn't give you rights on here the mods wont be acting on behalf of your tantrums.

You and a few other posters on here strike me as airsofter's with 0 real life combat experience playing soldier talking about defense and we need to defend the Island... mother of god F-16s... talk about a absolute notions! just stop!

You have to take into account where both those nations are they have a very REAL prospect of a devastating conflict and they are the first stop for any conflict that kicks off between other power's too so it make's sense for Finland to have all that. New Zealand tends to be tethered along with NATO so they need to have a strong military.. You compare that to Ireland then we have basically 0% chance of a direct conflict with another nation it doesn't make sense to have that when it realistically isn't needed.

Put simply there isnt a nation on the planet outside of the US or UK that could do a thing to Ireland, and given our relationship with both we have 0 realistic threats that would require us to massively upscale our DF's in short our small DF is more than enough for what we do and realistically require.

We face absolutely no threat what so ever from Russia from a military perspective, at least nothing we can prevent anyway. You are trying to take away a Russian first strike ability which is impossible they will always retain that, the trouble lie's in why they would strike in the first place what they would do after that.

Russia attack/invades Ireland = War with the US and UK especially the UK for alot of what i think are fairly obvious reasons.. The likelihood of such attacks occurring are so low its ridiculous they stand to gain nothing and would lose badly. From a strategic perspective these are just very stupid things to do but ill play into it.

Lets take your scenario of what you want and make them a reality, Russia is impeding Irish shipping with subs and Ireland has invested massively in military defence and we can track and kill said sub, we do so we attack and sink a top tier Russian sub the Knyaz Oleg has been sent to davy jones locker by the Irish Defence Forces.

Ireland is now at war with Russia claiming to have defended it's shipping from Russian subs.

What do we do now??? see the problem?

Our geographical location makes the threat of all-out invasion extremely low. There are very few unfriendly countries that can project that sort of manpower over the long distances required. Russia certainly can't, despite Putin's illusions. However, you miss the point.

There are few if any smaller countries that could prevent a larger determined superpower from successfully completing a brute force land grab. But that is not the point of a well equipped defence force. It's purpose is to deter any invasion attempt by making it far too costly to the aggressor in terms of lost manpower, equipment and time. That is why smaller countries, despite having no actual chance of preventing a successful large scale attack present a credible defence posture. And so should we.

You also need to move your thinking away from large scale attacks to what the actual threat is. Disruptive nuisance force projection by an obvious belligerent, designed to undermine Ireland's stability economically as a centre for current and future multinational FDI, a hub for major global technology and online industries. Something like that is not theoretical, it is actual. It is currently happening. Ships sent into areas of undersea cables, combat aircraft(yes combat aircraft) making a nuisance of themselves in Irish controlled airspace. And that is something we both need to be able to police and deter. Our economic future depends on it.

So while you moan about the cost of improving the defence forces, potential future FDI could be running to more secure locations and the money you would save by not investing ina minimum level of defence will look like pennies against the money lost to elsewhere. Defence, like Health or Social Welfare and Education is fundamental to an investable country. It's the cost of doing business.

Your second paragraph is irrelevant to us due to your first paragraph there is no immediate need for use to have an ultra deterrent DF other countries yes but Ireland no, especially when you factor in we can just work with other nation's and through agreements and mutual benefit gain the same protection but at a fraction of the cost.

As for the disruptive nuisance tactics that's just something we'll have to work around unless of course you are suggesting we use military force to stop it?

There are higher priorities on the totem pole for use of funds to encourage investment than defense..

Same.

What are the tax payers going to get for the 400 million extra we spend on the DF's what benefit to us is it? What ll we have that we don't already... The people with military experience here are bitter cause they ve no answers to those questions and want to be like the big boys the US and UK but its the one thing to be dreaming with 1.1 billion funding as 1.5!

I'd rather see that 400 million spent on housing rather than lads out preparing for the Russian "invasion" or what ever else it is were so desperately in need of defending from.. Clowns on here dreaming of F-16's and our hospitals up in a heap! We're more likely to be killed from the waiting times in hospital than the Russians or who ever else it is that is supposedly out to get us!

There is no justification for the money they are being allocated and it could be far better spent else where.