I'd have to give the first place trophy to the British special ops forces on counter-insurgency tactics.

I don't think anyone can lay claim to being 'the best',however the U.S. military is without doubt the most powerful and the British military is particularly strong for its size.
I just don't understand what Zander means by the British record in WW2 ,Afghanistan and Iraq.All the info I have found shows the British military has performed exceptionaly well almost all the time in all three wars.

Hey , please can people tell me how strong the UK Really is.

Although the UK front line military personnel are usually highly competent, their size and effectiveness have been limited by the soaring cost of modern technology, an incumbent national defence industry delivering ineffective weapons systems, and the mismanagement of European collaborative projects. These problems have been exacerbated by the reluctance of the army, navy and airforce to collaborate or standardise on equipment. The reductions in manpower over the years have also resulted in a top-heavy command structure that is cumbersome and expensive to maintain. Considering £30 billion or so is spent on the UK military every year it seems to be poor value, in technological terms at least.

According to Lewis Page in ‘Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs’, the US supplied equipment (Hercules, Chinook, Tomahawk) and the equipment supplied by British companies which used to be independent of BAE Systems (Warrior, Challenger and Harrier) is very good, but just about everything else BAE Systems has laid their hands on has been over-budget and worked poorly. Another problem, which is probably reflected in other forces, is that the long lead time for development of modern technology, has led to it being equipped for fighting the previous Warsaw pact countries, rather than tackling terrorists and insurgents which they now face. As a result orders for certain high tech products have been reduced, and the unit cost has soared. Hence the Eurofighter Typhoon (an ‘air superiority weapon’) might end up costing £120 million a piece. It seems that with hindsight F15s could have replaced the entire UK fighter force for the price of two or three of these and gained ground fighting capability as well.

The dilemma facing governments such as the UK is understandable. One needs to maintain an independent technological capability and the means to update and maintain equipment, but soaring costs have led to consolidation in the industry, which has led to a state monopoly. Collaborative agreements with American corporations seem to be the obvious answer, but this does not seem to have worked in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) case. The US will not given the UK access to the crucial source code of the plane's software, thus making it impossible for the UK to maintain and modify the JSF independently.There is even talk of dropping this contract and modifying aircraft carriers to launch Typhoon’s with catapults; perhaps this is a good idea since they could just fling them over the side!

France? Mmh

France spends more on defence than any European country.

Ok, what I mean that British is not the best is because of those reasons that persues said. Well, no country in the world can claim to be the best in the world. If you are the best, then you'll have to win every war that you have fought in.

Originally Posted by Missileer

I'd have to give the first place trophy to the British special ops forces on counter-insurgency tactics.

I wouldn't. But they're nothing to laugh at either.

Most COIN isn't run by British SOF anyway, it's by the conventionals. This is something I would like to see the US do more of, instead of just quick crash courses. Get our conventional guys up to speed with COIN and MOOTW.

Caer to explain wad's COIN and MOOTV?

Caer to explain wad's COIN and MOOTV?

ditto. some of us arent up on the lingo.


MOOTV stands for Military Operatiosn Other Than War i thoght.

No idea what COIN is.

Originally Posted by Rabs

ditto. some of us arent up on the lingo.


MOOTV stands for Military Operatiosn Other Than War i thoght.

No idea what COIN is.

I don't know what MOOTV is, but MOOTW is Military Operations Other Than War, yes. COIN is counter-insurgency.

I don't know what MOOTV

It would be a typo.