In article , Peter Kemp
writes:

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).

Hell, why not an Israel? Bigger population and no occupation
commitments...unless you include parts of Lanarkshire and the Glesga Strip.