On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 23:07:21 +0100, (phil hunt)
wrote:

There's recently been speculation in the media that UK defence cuts
ewill result in some or all of Scotland's infantry regiments being
disbanded[1]. If Scotland became an independent state, what
sort of armed forces should it have -- if you were appointed
Scottish minister of defence, what would you do?

4-6 fisheries protection vessels, alsae guid for keeping the damn
English away fra the wee oil platferms.

one of them Brewery ships sounds like a guid idee an all, fer keeping
the troops mora...morae.....spirits oop.
Now, are we goona join that Nato thingie or not?

If we are, then a coople of battalians of infantree shood werk well
fer yon peeckeepin roll, and we can gaw down and smack the damn
Sassenachs occasionaly an all.

A few MPAs (again 4-6) for long range patrol, plus C2 of any SAR work,
plus a dozen Merlins for both land and naval work (SAR, troop
transposrt, resupply).

If Bonnie auld Scotland did ever split, I see them (if you haven't
guessed I'm not a native Scottish speaker) more as an Ireland (minimal
forces except for peacekeping and EEZ patrol), than a Sweden
(extremely large and competant forces for the size of economy and
population).

Peter "Hoots Mon, where's me kilt?" Kemp