Originally Posted by Shadowalker

Im just sad that all recent governments have done a disservice to our soldiers by cutting down on necessary equipment, providing them with inadequate equipment, and providing them with faulty equipment! The rot doesnt seem likely to end soon either!

Even still Shadow with all that is happening with kit, low wages and manpower reduction we still managed to cover OP Fresco the firefighter strikes with 50yr old fire engines (green godesses) deploy to both Afghanistan and Iraq aswell as peacekeeping duties around the world and still keep on top of it all

Now something like that wouldnt affect the US forces that much because of sheer numbers its simple they have a lot we dont

Kit they beat us hands down on kit doesnt matter if its a rucksack or a aircraft carrier they have the money to spend we dont

Unfortunately I have to say training on behalf of the British is starting to lack especially on the side of the RAF cant speak to much on the rest of the GB forces, but we still manage to cope

Peace keeping we have that down pat thanks to long service in Ireland all you had to do was watch the news about Iraq to see the difference when patrolling in the cities the British forces would be walking about wearing berets and carrying their rifles low
the US forces would be wearing full body armour kevlar helmets and rifles up in the shoulder its little touches like that, that make a difference

As someone said earlier sorry for not referring by name and quote when the British have their backs to the wall they are tough. Damn right, but thats not just the British if it were WWII would of finished a lot sooner Japan wouldnt of needed nuking and Iraq, N. Ireland and various other spots around the world would have an embassy and not a task force stationed there

When it comes to the Best of the Best you cant compare various nation forces like football players 1on1. We each have our strengths we each have our weaknesses thats why we have joint exercises and cross train with one another we learn from our mistakes. Russian tank doctrine is taught and employed by nearly every single tank regiment in the world as well as British, American and German tank doctrine.

As I have mentioned in the Beslan post, after the Berlin Olympics fiasco in which an entire countrys Olympic team was killed because of lack of experience by the German counter terrorism team. They contacted the experts, the SAS and now they are better same as the Americans special forces and the FBI hostage rescue team all train with the SAS to make themselves better just as we train with the Germans, the French, the Americans. Christ we will train with any one in a foreighn country for two reasons
1. They have something we want to know
2. How the hell else we gonna see the world, wars dont happen in nice places

Jay

Yeah the military did us proud in difficult circumstances, in my opinion though they shouldnt be using green goddesses they should have up to date equipment, with the budget they do have though they do better then any other country in the world would with the same budget!
And i agree with the peacekeeping as well, maybe if the americans had the knowledge and training that our troops have then maybe baghdad/falluja would not of seen the violence.

The British military is the goods, but better at peacekeeping? Probably. But fighting mid to large sized insurgent factions? I doubt any better than the US. Equal, probably. Besides, a large amount of the casualites have been from IED, mostly in very hostile areas, I don't think UK troopers are stationed in many of those.

Though that body armor has always looked like a bad idea to me..... I don't get why berets help! :P lol

In some ways I think British soldiers are good, but during a six month experience of having the "privilege" to live with them at the Swedish camp Camp Victoria in Kosovo my mind changed slightly. Why? There were always a lot of fights in the bar and outside it, and they didn't respect our traditions that probably were weird to them. (As our pinky ceremony). Well I don't say that all of the Brits are like that. Just the ones that I shared camp with during that time.
During my second tour to Kosovo I changed my mind again. This time all Brits I met/worked with was really respectful toward other nations soldiers.

I have all the respect in the world for the British Armed Forces. I have found them to be professional and highly capable, especially the Royal Marines, but then I'm biased when it comes to "bootnecks".
As for the USMC / Royal Marine exchange program Mr. Bourne HQMC would make that decision and it would hurt for you to be Jump and Scuba qualed before they send you off to run around with 2 Commando.

I have been in Chinese military forums for long time, I give you the views of general Chinese military fans:

1. UK forces are all extremly well equiped and trained.

2. UK army is just tool used by USA. UK army cannot take on any meaningful army of any meaningful sized country. Without USA, UK military is almost meaningless in the world.

Oh, above are just the opinions, no intention to hurt anyone, if not feeling too well, read point 1 again

The above post is rather amusing, since we colonised a few hundred years back. You will find we generally use our military to guard our country. Which is why hmmm the French, Spanish, Germans and more have never been able to invade Britain. The U.S.A does seem to use the British but I think the U.K could take control of a country much bigger then itself (i.e any country lol). Remember those Brits fought the Argentines what 15 years ago? 700 odd argentinians dead and 200 odd brits. Argentine is what 20 times bigger then England? Proven wrong

Originally Posted by OSEU

The above post is rather amusing, since we colonised a few hundred years back. You will find we generally use our military to guard our country. Which is why hmmm the French, Spanish, Germans and more have never been able to invade Britain. The U.S.A does seem to use the British but I think the U.K could take control of a country much bigger then itself (i.e any country lol). Remember those Brits fought the Argentines what 15 years ago? 700 odd argentinians dead and 200 odd brits. Argentine is what 20 times bigger then England? Proven wrong

Hey, I'm British too but don't let's kid ourselves. We should be thankful for the English Channel because it was the only thing that stopped us being invaded by Germany in WW2.

UK a tool for the yankees? They're just our ally. I call it generosity

Amazing? Amazing is a good thing.

The point is the Outside World is always Amazing since it is simply unknown to you

Anyway it is THE opinions of some countries. Shall I tell you more? I have been many Inernational Military Forums, and that view is shared by most of the world countries, I put the view here in a polite way, if no Mods here, then I can put the true words describing UK's military forces here, but it will not be allowed here