Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

Oh like everything else Trump does, its a scam, no question. But he's been pissed at the UN and G7 for years now, so something like the global version he's touting where he runs it would certainly play to his ego, which is just as important as scamming money.

But again, the DOD would like us all to remain calm and understand that there's no need for defence spending.

Ah the good old fantasy "guerrilla war" option, jaysus you wonder why any nation bothers with investing in their militaries.

Where have I said that, in fact I've been very vocal on numerous threads about the failures to move beyond LoA3 at pace starting from 2022. But if you imagine your "guerrilla" option is the better option you are at best deluding yourself, both in terms of what that means it its attempted (see the nations that have fought that way), or that Ireland could actually mount such an attempt (spoiler, the population aren't all hidden well trained forces waiting to attack).

The sane option would have been taking the 2014 invasion as a wake up call and getting serious about defence then, both at a national level and EU level.

What does 'unlikely" mean?

Do you understand anything about the actual issues at play, including the LoA2 implementation plan for the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, the pending capability development reports for the future Army, Navy and Air Force and the reorganisation of the command and control structures, or are you just making passing, ill-informed comments for the sake of it?

Ambition is also an ambiguous term. I'm sure a load of us have the ambition to be millionaires…. doesn't mean we will be.

Then, how would you suggest a nation as small as Ireland could survive and defeat the world's only superpower with the world's most modern and powerful military?

They would be the first target but wouldn't that be a tripwire. Depend on how they were distributed, hidden and decoys deployed.

At least under De Valera we had over 40,000 regular troops plus over 100,000 territorials. Plus a few squadrons of modern aircraft and a few small warships. These backed by a capable intellegence service were backing our neutrality in the 40's.

It is unlikely. There is no immediate direct threat from any country. Yes Russia is observing.

The major change to the Air capability is going to cost quite something. Nato was the better option for that. If the security problem is several years away, a few fighter jets will make some small difference, but not enough to have something similar to the British setup.

That is what Ireland should have, and I mean the Irish nation, not Ireland as in the island. That isn't going to happen.

The government's committment to change is in the correct direction.

I'm not an expert on military hardware.

Clearly many countries could pull off a Maduro stunt.

Not at all unreasonable, by the time of the Hurricanes it was a well understood tech and one that the UK had been trying to get us to agree to install for years at that point, but that doesn't change the issue of no C&C, and I'll add in no ability to support anything outside of Dublin.

And I chose my words carefully when I said "Modern", the Hurricanes weren't modern by 1943, they were in fact considered no longer capable of Air to Air Combat, particularly as we bought the Mark 1's so the least capable and oldest capable variant of a pre WW2 design. The procurement of later Mark's and the Seafires post war making even less sense.

Now if a hostile force had been nice enough to phone ahead to warn us, and then fly unescorted (and perhaps unarmed) bombers over Dublin, the AC might have been able to do "something" for a bit (until they ran out of spares/fuel/airframes), but calling that an effective air interception capability seems a "bit" of a stretch, less said about before 1943 the better.

As to the Army yes I can dismiss it, as a) it took most of the war to get to that point (I seem to recall we actually dropped numbers in 1940 for harvesting for example), and was far less than that at any of the high tension points (1939-1942), b)I'm not willing to assume everyone on the list of the LDF were actually active trained up personnel (we all know stories of FCA shenanigans), so what we notationally had on the books may not actually have been reality if bullets started flying, for example we lied repeatedly to the British about numbers when we started talking to them about joint defence post Fall of France.

Throughout the War, the Army lacked sufficient numbers of all enablers for WW2 warfare, from comms, transport, artillery, anti tank capabilities, armour, air defence, spares etc. So the idea that if the Allies (which were the only ones that could actually get to us) had for whatever reason decided that they were going to invade even before the US got involved, then no, the Army wouldn't have had the ability to stop them. It's basically the same trope as "sure we'll all become Guerilla fighters and that will stop the invaders", ignoring the reality that it's a really bad plan and outcome even if it works. The Allies for example could have taken the Treaty Ports and surrounding areas and held them without giving a feck about what the Army might do, and the Axis couldn't have done anything.

That doesn't answer my question. It's just rambling.

Finland wasn't invaded by a superpower during the Cold War.

However, if Finland had been invaded and occupied by a superpower during the Cold War, they planned to use 'Sissi' guerrilla warfare units. Their aim was not to defeat the enemy in open battle, but to make the cost of occupying the country higher than any potential gain.

The Irish army figures in 1942 - mid war- were said to be 40,000 regular army and 100,000 territorials. look what the IRA did with only a few thousand badly armed men - holding down around 60,000 regular troops.

A guerilla army would probably have existed too even when/if a regular army was beaten and would have received support from the Axis at that point in the war.

Radar was only available to the major powers mid war and as it turns out Radar stations were set up under british control in Donegal and Cork we also had numerous costal watch station around the Island.

The Hurricane was still a modern aircraft if not a frontline fighter/interceptor in 1942. There were Mk1 and Mk2 some captured after forced landiings here. It was used until the end of the war as a ground attack aircraft only taken out of front line service by the british in 1944 and still used until 1947 in other roles.

If either Churchill or Hitler wanted to take the country or even the ports it would have been a nightmare for us but also for them especially when they needed the 200,000 or so troops elsewhere.

All of it or do you want to be specific?

From the fantasy publication "History Ireland"

"The British were secretly allowed to set up radar stations near Schull, Co. Cork, and near Malin Head, Co. Donegal. In addition, they were allowed to station a spotter aircraft at Foynes to look for German U-boats. Those were only some of the ways in which the Irish quietly helped."

"...26 May 1944, Royal Navy Sea Hurricanes operating from the escort carrier HMS Nairana claimed the destruction of three Ju 290 reconnaissance aircraft during the defence of a convoy..."

Depends what Ireland used the Hurricane for. It's was hardly doing to fight a war with a handful of planes. Patrol, ground attack, still useful for that.

If Ireland does eventually get fighter jets, say 40 years from now, It might be wise to invest in better quality hangers than Portugal.

I believe 14% of their F-16s were damaged.