Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

I would have said more the Government lost in its attempt to have the case thrown out, whether or not he actually wins anything is to be seen.

That depends on whether or not it is appealed to the Supreme Court, and in giving both sides time to consider the judgement, Justice Cregan seems to assume thats exactly what will happen.

Hopefully the extent of this will come out during the course of the court proceedings.…

you don’t really believe that do you? Besides it’s mostly along the lines of “ungrateful bastards”, “why won’t we allow the RAF here”

I'll put my money on option b.

If the action of the state is, or is likely unconstitutional then it 100% should be challengable by any citizen in the state. Irrespective of whether it affects national security or not.

Craughwell believes that the current arrangement is unconstitutional and has brought a challenge as it should be.

The constitution is not a buffet where the state can pick and choose, if they are indeed going against the constitution then that needs to be reviewed and challenged. The state should be providing for our security only within the confines of the constitution.

But neither you or I are constitutional lawyers. So we are not qualified to make that call and that us why being able to bring cases like this are so important.

The whole world already knows that we cannot defend ourselves, we've just released a public report that confirms it. A legal challenge like this won't make us worse off, but may tip the government's hand to make us better.

Worst case scenario is that the court decides that the agreement isn't unconstitutional and we continue with LOA2.

On your last paragraph, that is the exact point I'm making but from a different viewpoint, they legislate within the framework of the constitution and not outside it. Yes we can change the constitution, but we haven't even had official confirmation that the agreement exists, nevermind a decision on it's constitutionality.

The case is important as it will 1 formally confirm whether the agreement exists or not and 2 confirm whether or not it is constitutionally sound. If it is, then it continues and the population is aware of the agreement. If not then it cannot stand and the government is forced to either change the constitution or provide a better ability to defend the country.

and yet by any margin the British military has declined over the last 14 years of Tories (and really longer with the GWOT)without much public protest or complaint, hell I wonder how many “Joe public” would know about the RFA strike, or the laid up hulls both RN and RFA, or the small size of the RAF, or any of the hundred and one issues they have.

They want to buy votes, spending on defence won’t do that.

the suggestion of 2.5% is clearly being stated “as the economy can support it” over the lifetime of the government, it’s not something that is likely to happen swiftly, let alone their current 2.3% is a bit of clever accounting by sticking pensions into the total.

Colour me shocked for the second time today.

Doesn't that depend?

Is it a step towards an end goal ?

Or an end goal in itself ,as an end goal it doesn't do much than our current trainers ..

And if we replaced our current trainers with pc 21s would we be in much the same place as with jet trainers ,but for far less cost

I assume European radar manufacturers are a little busy at the moment, -doesnt mean we shouldn't join the queue though - how many radar stations would we need to give a fairly accurate picture of the nations airspace , we do have the advantage of many coastal mountains,

I suppose ,at a minimum 1 station far north ,1 station south or south west , and 1 somewhere east or south east , can they be co-located with existing air-traffic control radar stations ?

How much security would a radar station need ?

Emm. As far as I know….them PC21's can't carry a weapons payload

The only real reason to move to a pc-21 would be to use it as an advanced trainer .. before moving up to a fighter jet of some sort ..

Although if they were purchased as direct replacement, they'd be a step in the right direction..