Interesting articles

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120950622#Comment_120950622

People seem to forget that at the outset of WW2, some artillery units were armed with replica weapons. When we did try to order actual equipment we were at the back of the queue, because priority went to those actually fighting in the war. The few bits and pieces we got we did because the Nazis had already overrun the country they were originally intended for.

The Big ticket items in LOA3

Fighter Jets: Any new build F16 or Gripen will be going to Ukraine in large quantities for the next decade or so.

Ammo: Back of the queue, Even the USA has run out of the stocks it can export.

Naval Vessels: Worldwide capacity is gone, anything european has a 5 year lead time.

Armoured vehicles: What we bought for €1m per vehicle at the start of the millenium, will now cost €6m per vehicle, and back of the queue.

Like 1940, we do have a decent stock of infantry weapons though, I'm sure there are plenty of old Steyrs still around with the integrated x1.5 sight not yet upgraded, not to mention all the old FN FALs. I'd doubt any brens were dumped yet either, and quite a few well worn MAGs are a smidgen away from having their barrel repainted permanently.

roadmaster

Ah Yes Leo we must do more Monitoring. Any Ideas Leo?

https://www.ft.com/content/bfb26fd9-c1f5-49af-af97-f70351b20451

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120951301#Comment_120951301

Now now, Defence and Finance have said things are just fine and stop with all this complaining…

mupper2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120951301#Comment_120951301

There is a business opportunity for someone with the wherewithal to set up a security company with boats....

roadmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120951989#Comment_120951989

If there was only some sort of armed state group that the government could invest in that could do this work

Larbre34

I've always said, one of the few motivators of any Irish government to address something seriously, is embarrassment on the international stage over it.

The X case, for example, didn't get much international coverage in the early 90s, but in the social media age, poor Savita Halapanavar became world news. And then bingo, we had legalised termination within two years.

Be interesting to see what all this chatter results in.

Grassy Knoll

Defence and Finance ultimately respond to Government political will, irrespective of official approach. Currently the political will to change this is only half there - the allowances etc to attract & retain manpower need to be approved - if health and housing have billions literally flittered away on political whims - if we are serious about operationalising a modest LoA2 it is hard to see why we can’t pay the money. It seems to me if multinationals start to point out our glaring security gaps that could be one catalyst- clearly old cod about ships being ‘refitted’, operational reserve etc - euphuism for rusting away at some quay wall or our sham ‘neutrality’ where our neighbours tend to our security needs hasn’t shamed them just yet…

for what it is worth it strikes me a lot more of the public are aware of these deficiencies and would support the necessary spend for even this ‘entry level’ spend

Dohvolle

Problem with the public is they haven't a clue.

They think €1bn is too much to spend on defending the state, including pay and pensions of those who defend, or used to defend it. Meanwhile Government spends double that on ONE hospital, three times what it was supposed to.

It blinks quietly when it was revealed the Dept of Housing returned an equivalent of the defence budget unspent, during a national housing shortage.

We want to live like a modern european nation, we just don't want to spend to get there.

roadmaster

Topic this morning on Pat kenny about the need for a Civilian Intelligence Agency as there is to many gaps being left between Garda Crime & Security and Defence Forces J2 along with the lack of clear guidance of who does what. AGS actually made a submission to the Commision on Defence to clarfiy roles. The podcast is not up on the newstalk website yet

Larbre34

Was that not the intention of the National Security Analysis Centre, its Directorate and the awaited National Security Strategy paper?

Larbre34

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/minister-says-latest-cyber-attack-on-irish-embassy-was-work-of-russian-intelligence-agency/a1899911581.html

This nation is an enemy of Ireland and of all EU members.

We need to put a defensive infrastructure in place that considers them as such.

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120965974#Comment_120965974

To be fair to the minister for Cyber security (not a front bench post) he at least holds a BA in Computer science, earned back when a hard drive filled a room, portable storage was a 3.5 inch floppy of 1.44mb and operating system was DOS.

The people who hold these posts are ill qualified to make decisions about them, unless its agriculture or education, as most TD are either teachers or Farmers. When it comes to National Security, to rely on the civil servants in the dept is to rely on those who WANTED to live in dublin. Same goes for Justice relying on C&S branch for security updates. We limit ourselves to employing those who want to work in Dublin, thus excluding many far better qualified candidates working in the tech sector in locations elsewhere. The Current defence minister has zero defence experience, but relies on the advice of those who chose to live and work in Newbridge.

We need a centralised intelligence organisation, not unlike CAB, drawing the best of people from all the agencies responsible for security in the state, and not just the civil servants who run their department.

sparky42

New Zealand might be looking at getting back into fighters:

https://www.globaldefensecorp.com/2020/09/07/nz-f-16c/

Dohvolle

2020.

Larbre34

Lot of chat in the social media ether comparing New Zealand to Ireland, when really, the only comparison is population size and wealth-ish.

New Zealand is an openly allied nation of Australia, Japan, Korea and NATO. They are a treaty member of the UKUSA Agreement aka 'Five Eyes', the most sophisticated signals intelligence sharing network in the World.

They very definitely will present a challenge, with Australia, to Chinese activity in Oceania and so both their cyber and war fighting defence needs are in a different universe from Ireland.

They should never have got out of the fighter business for home defence, as the islands that make up Aotearoa are a defensive territory 25% larger than Great Britain.

Dohvolle

Officers would not recommend Defence Forces career to friends or relatives, survey shows (irishexaminer.com)

Dohvolle

Sean O’Riordan: When warning shots on the crisis in our military go unheeded (irishexaminer.com)

Larbre34

Two NATO air forces interceptions of Russian bombers since this morning, Danish fighters off the Netherlands and the RAF QRA off Scotland.

No doubt they are heading our way now, entirely unperturbed and unmolested.

Dohvolle

Meanwhile the Rouble continues to nosedive. Countries in dire financial difficulties tend to make rash decisions.

roadmaster

Ohh Weapons Training. Maybe the government should ask Mary Lou's pals to help with rifle trainning as they would have more use with the AK variants

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/08/18/irish-troops-to-provide-weapons-training-to-ukraine-despite-governments-non-lethal-assistance-pledge/

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120993674#Comment_120993674

I was thinking the opposite. Apparently Ukraine have received a large quantity of Steyr AUGs, (Bullpups have fallen out of favour, but it is still a trouble free weapon) and are pushing more and more towards western ammo and weapons (availability of Russian Made ammo may become an issue in the long term, as all their ammo dumps spontaneously combust).

Larbre34

We've probably got more boxed 5.56 than all the homes in America.

jonnybigwallet

I imagine the Russian ambassador will be fuming about this!

jonnybigwallet

Wonder where they are going to do the training?

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120995721#Comment_120995721

Yeah, they prefer 0.223 for some reason. Didn't Vietnam teach y'all anything?

roadmaster

Listening to poor pbp paul hes all upset over the training. Someone should wind him up and tell him the company building kit planes in abbeyshrule are actually building killer Drones!!!

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120996620#Comment_120996620

Why anyone bothers listening to that gobshite is beyond me tbh.

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120996620#Comment_120996620

I thought we agreed we weren't going to talk about the NATO backed cruise missile factory in Abbeyshrule? I'm delighted they got the contract though. Things have been quiet there since the USAF moved the stealth bombers to the UK.

I've said too much.

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120996515#Comment_120996515

In fairness, I've a few thousand rounds of 5.56 in my garage, but nothing in .223.

These days, .223 is more a term of phrase like 'xerox' for a photocopier, NATO standard chambering and pressure is pretty much default for our personal rifles these days. My AXR, SIG 556 and Tavor are all NATO spec.

roadmaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120998733#Comment_120998733

With a few thousand rounds of ammo in your garage are you getting Ready for the walking dead or the 2nd civil war