The Navy Thread

Seems like they were taking after the fine tradition of the Leyland L60 there.

Yeah. Well, having all six ships in Portsmouth at once may not be sinister but the article's author trying to insinuate that it isn't highly unusual for the whole class to be alongside at the same time is odd, to say the least.

I can't remember it ever happening in my life time and I've been reading about the Royal Navy for years.

There's also another reason mentioned in the article:

There aren't enough sailors to keep the current RN fleet operation. From what I've heard it's the same in the RAF and probably in the Army.

That's what happens when the Tories try to sack most of the active duty regular service personnel, sacrificing them on their holy altar of Austerity, I guess.

Though I've a sneaking suspicion those boats would be alongside even if the navy was fully manned.

More lolz courtesy of the Daily Telegraph and the Home Affairs Select Committee:

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/royal-navy-must-be-deployed-in-channel-to-protect-from-terrorists-and-people-smugglers/ar-BBvaFSn?ocid=spartandhp

"The Royal Navy should be deployed in the English Channel to protect the UK against migrant people-smugglers and the heightened terror threat, M Ps warn.

Extra patrols around the border are needed because the UK’s fleet of cutters is depleted and not sufficient to protect against the threat to the country from the refugee crisis."

With what ships? And where are they going to get the sailors from, given a crisis in manning that's one of the factors behind the Daring Class destroyers all being tied up in Portsmouth?

Good question — and it doesn't help that two of the Border Force's six cutters are laid up to save money (and one has been on deployment in the Mediterranean).

I can imagine the MoD coming back with: "Unfortunately, we cannot assist because we do not have the crews to man any available vessels".

edited 3rd Aug '16 2:26:35 AM by Greenmantle

Maybe we could offer the migrants a chance to join the Royal Navy and help do something about human traffick- oh, wait, this is because they're scared shitless of brown people because Murdoch said so.

edited 3rd Aug '16 2:22:16 AM by Krieger22

So we're suggesting a British Foreign Legion?

Maybe they can see if France can help them patrol their borders. I'm sure that'll go over like a fart in a church.

Failing that, do what the US does and start employing civilian auxiliaries to help the military with various requirements, assuming the Brits do not do this already.

Guess I should start looking for a UKBF job.

And yes, apparently we've been reduced to buying clapped out retired cutters from the Finns to keep the fleet up.

edited 3rd Aug '16 8:54:58 AM by Deadbeatloser22

I'm sure that happens already, as a lot of our support functions (including our A330 MRTT tankers and RE Equipment) are contracted out to civilian firms, it probably happens already...

In terms of this, Coastguard Search & Rescue Helicopters are contracted out to Bristol and lifeboats are of course mostly operated by charities including the RNLI.

I thought our six were new-build Dutch vessels, of a type used by many others, including the US Coast Guard?

edited 3rd Aug '16 8:58:05 AM by Greenmantle

We have four Dutch cutters and one second-hand Finnish cutter.

So the Border Force patrol cutters don't have weapons fitted?

What. The. Fuck?

Especially since in these days of government-induced defence force stretch, they can't rely on getting naval support if they suddenly need to start dodging live rounds or something even more sinister.

I am somewhere between being all "FUCK YEAH FINLAND" and wondering why would the Brits use our stuff.

Also, why would you put an ad for a military vessel in the Helsingin Sanomat?

Well, there's civilian contractors, which the US uses for many support functions as well, but I was thinking more along the lines of civilian volunteers like Civil Air Patrol or the Military Auxiliary Radio Service (CAP helps the Air Force with various domestic patrol duties, such as Search and Rescue and post-disaster aerial photography, MARS assists with communications in an emergency, there are almost certainly other such organizations)

The Military Sealift Command mostly has civilians but the ships are owned by the USN.

Of course, they aren't volunteers but I still wouldn't classify them as contractors.

HM's Border Force being unarmed most of the time sounds right. The USCG has a few armed cutters but the majority of its smallcraft are unarmed, and 99% of their taskings don't require any kind of weapon.

Are the Sealift Command folks US Navy employees, or are they similar to the civilian airliners that the Air Force can call in to help with military airlift?

I think the term we're looking for is auxiliary.

AFP: Employees, I think.

I think we're trying to pin down just what we mean by auxiliary too. In the Air Force, you have four types of airmen: Active Duty, Guard/Reserve, Civilians, and Auxiliaries. At least in the USAF's case, Civilian airmen are all of the civilian personnel directly employed by the Air Force, while the Auxiliaries typically refers to the Civil Air Patrol (civilian volunteers who receive some training, oversight, and funding/materiel from the Air Force). CAP airmen aren't paid by the Air Force when they aren't doing Air Force missions, and otherwise don't get paid at all.

Maybe in a broader or legal sense, the paid civilian employees are also considered auxiliaries, I dunno.

8 proposed ship names They propose the lead ship of the SSB Nx class be named USS Columbia. I expect this will drive Tumblr insane.

Naming something after DC? About time. They may well suffer from Taxation Without Representation, but at least in terms of "ships named after" they're ahead of Montana now.

Yeah but Columbia, has historically been seen as a symbol associated with Manifest destiny.

Tumblr gets mad about a lot of things and you've managed to hit on one of the few things that it doesn't, but points for trying.

The amount of shits tumblr doesn't give about naming warships is immense.