Ireland - now considered one of most vulnerable countries in the EU (defense wise)

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858247#Comment_121858247

Don’t be ridiculous . There’s a free bar in the Dail 😷

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858254#Comment_121858254

The Dail is a building, so what? Unless they have miraculously teleported thousands of soldiers there then the DF are more then capable of dealing with it. And where on earth are these helicopters coming from?

I am pro more defence spending, but most of these fantasy scenarios you want to defend against are utterly ludicrous.

aidanodr

Off to the scrap yard

https://www.newstalk.com/news/le-eithne-was-ahead-of-its-time-as-vessel-sent-to-scrapyard-1648907

When on high seas, crew of 80.

The Naval Service has nine ships - one Helicopter Patrol Vessel (HPV), three Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV), two Large Patrol Vessel (LPV) and two Coastal Patrol Vessels (CPV). I assume thats now eight?

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858066#Comment_121858066

Curious what you're thinking here.

They will rob the data centres and put the data on a plane to fly out. Would it not be easier to hack them. Maybe you think they blow them and they don't have backups. But then they don't have to land here too do that either.

I can't see Russians doing a Viking plunder raid of every hard drive in the country.

If a country just want to harass Ireland I think you could do that with out landing here.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858299#Comment_121858299

It's unlikely I'd grant you but not impossible. Do you really think that it would take thousands of soldiers to take the Dail? A few dozen commandos could do it and put a puppet Government in place.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858275#Comment_121858275

Remote but still a possibility. Russian being disliked is no deterrent to them..are they popular in Ukraine or Afghanistan or the Baltics? Their ships regularly pass near our west coast not to talk of Submarines. In fact they could be on our Western shores in thousands before we woke up in the morning or had any real warning.

saabsaab

What exactly is the policy of those arguing against a meaningful defence capabilty?

If attacked..

Immediate surrender? A protest to the UN?

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858334#Comment_121858334

What on earth good does taking the Dáil do to anyone? The building does not confer magical properties on the occupants.

It would take thousands of soldiers to not all be rather quickly killed or captured.

jmayo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121857844#Comment_121857844

We don't need to hold out, nor could we ever hope to hold out against a properly resourced modern army.

But we do need to be to offer some form of protection for our seas, airspace and our land.

At the moment we have 2 or is 3 Casa aircraft (we had 2 Casa 235 and are now in process of replacing them with new Casa 295s) for fisheries patrols.

Have you ever actually looked at the size of our territorial waters?

We have 8 Pilatus sorry 7 Pilatus PC9s after one crashed in a mountain in Galway.

Ask anyone in the know and the bets are there are only about 3 or 4 flying at any one time.

We have 2 EC135 and 4 AW139s.

One is chauffeur duty for ministers and the other is medivac.

We have 700 odd personnel in the Air Corps.

FFS.

Our Navy can't even put what ships they have to sea because of lack of staff.

As for cost we pi** away billions annually.

We have a government led round by the nose by vested interests and NGOs that is currently trying to adopt half the world, usually the young male half.

We have the worlds most expensive hospital that has been in development, planning, design and actually building stage for the last 20 odd years.

We have spent 500 million on a Metro to the airport and not one single shovel or spade has been put in the ground.

Actually maybe it is just as well they don't up spending on military as the clowns we have would buy a squadron of Centurion tanks, 2 F22s, half a Typhoon and u-boat.

And maybe even the wreck of the Arizona so that they would have excuse to visit Hawaii.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858364#Comment_121858364

It does make a difference, just take the Dail and say RTE and Virgin media and announce the new Government to the world. A few soldiers to enforce the media compliance. Who would give orders to kill or capture the invaders? especially if they had some local collaboration there would be total chaos as nobody would be prepared. Thousands of troops would not be needed especially if they had helicopter and fighter support. There are 5,000 Russians in the state and some locals who hold views that are sympathetic.

jmayo

FFS we are not going to be invaded by Russia.

Someone clo-clo I think referenced Germans not invading in WWII.

Germans couldn't even invade Britain because they didn't have amphibious assault capabilities like US or Japan.

They had to knock RAF out of action to be able to then have chance of keeping Royal Navy at bay.

They didn't have the aircraft either and they couldn't just use the Fallschirmjager paratrooper division and even then they would not have the capability to hold any major gains in Ireland.

They only succeeded in Crete thanks to absolutely awful British leadership and superior air support.

Likewise Russia can not get near now.

But invasion isn't the issue, interference ala Russian ships in our waters possibly going at communications cables is a possible issue.

Hell we couldn't even chase away Spanish fishing boats never mind a Russian navy ship.

How about hijacking of an airliner in our airspace.

Hell we wouldn't even know about it until it was possibly too late.

Transponder switched off and wait and hope you find out it was only a glitch or until one of the RAF boys gets there to check it out.

Terrorism and most specifically islamist terrorism hasn't gone away in Europe.

If anything Europe has set the seeds for more and worse in the decades ahead.

We could not even hope to put a security cordon in place ala in France, Britain and other countries in the event of a threat.

And please do not give is this shyte about we are not in NATO, we never invaded anyone, everyone loves the paddys, etc etc.

We are secular Europeans with a love affair and connection with Uncle Sam.

Paul_Crosby

Pilots (helicopter ones in particular) fear the stinger missile, from the Russians in Afghanistan to when they thought the South Armagh Brigade had got a load of them shipped in, they only managed to get 3 Strela Surface to Air Missiles , but those made the pilots flying around Bandit country really nervous knowing even just 3 of them were probably out there, and could be aiming upward at them at any time

L.Ball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858361#Comment_121858361

The reality is there's isn't much a meaningful defence Ireland could mount against a power with the kind of logistics that could launch an attack on us in the first place, not in the short term anyway (and we all know how well we are at long term planning). No we have to slowly build up our naval and air capabilities, and unless a top to bottom restructuring can take place (it can't) then the army as it is should be scrapped, and folded into the other two branches.

Paul_Crosby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858416#Comment_121858416

Your need more manpower and support to do all that successfully than you think

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858484#Comment_121858484

I disagree and that's the nub of it. You don't want to defend the country? We should be able to mouunt an agressive defence early on in an invasion Switzerland is also neutral and ha s a policy of making itself not worth the effort to invade. We should do the same.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858492#Comment_121858492

How so? How many ready armed soldiers are in the Dail or within a km? A little as two dozen could do it supported by a few helicopters and light armour.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858398#Comment_121858398

Wow the political broadcasts have started

What difference is "some protection" to what we offer now? "FFS" 😂

You lot are good crack, nobody can answer why the f**k anyone would bother to invade us in the first place.

If you are concerned about staff in the current army why not join? 🤭

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858416#Comment_121858416

To be honest if the World are using RTE player they won't know if it's a broadcast or just slipped into an episode of Fair City

They will get excellent picture for the ads

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858416#Comment_121858416

They can announce whatever they want to the world while holding whoever happens to be in the Dáil hostage. It would be utterly meaningless. The Dáil is bricks and mortar, taking it alone by force is utterly worthless. You seem to think taking a building someone confers ownership of the country.

Who would give orders to kill or capture the invaders? The chain of command, who would be paying precisely zero attention to any announced illegitimate government.

This is fantastical and farcical stuff.

Randycove

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858069#Comment_121858069

Why?

do you really think the UK is going to start a war with Russia on its own, or any European country?

Randycove

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858180#Comment_121858180

Providing someone can fly them there for us, of course.

nachouser

Lads, just revive the "Is it time to join nato?" thread and spout the same stuff on there.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858281#Comment_121858281

I will join the lads in the bar, first round on me....we can spend a few hours trying to work out what the f**k they want with Ireland

Wait till they try to rent an apartment, I think they will be out of Ireland quicker than they landed, them lads aint paid big in rubles.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858658#Comment_121858658

Why does anyone invade a country? Who thought Putin would invade Ukraine? Current defence force is not 'some protection' at all it may be just enough to put down a half hearted local rebellion or similar. It isn't a deterrent at all.

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858475#Comment_121858475

I refer my previous comment, cut the links in Irish waters and it stops nothing.

What will the Irish army do if they hire a airliner? big or small....

What is the army doing against terrorism? unless you plan to put them in large numbers on the streets?

This is all nonsense you dreamt up and none of it makes sense. If a terrorist wants to do a terror attack like the ones in London/Berlin etc it doesn't matter if we have 2 lads or 2 millions in the army. Unless the terror attack happens in an army base.

Still, why is Russia invading us? to grab the gas we have? opp's none. To grab the oil? opp's none

Grab all the natural resources like diamonds/gold/steel etc? opps

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858707#Comment_121858707

Again the reason Russia invaded Ukraine is clear, none of those situations have anything to do with Ireland.

Our biggest risk is actually a local rebellion but at this stage it's mostly lads on internet running multiple accounts and abusing people.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858669#Comment_121858669

It's not meaningless. Why does any coup attempt take the TV station(s) and the parliament first? They do because it shows who is in charge to the world. Would our chain of command react quickly to remove the intruders? I doubt it if things go as they usually do..

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858672#Comment_121858672

You tell me, I am still trying to work out why Russia started a war with Ireland

jackboy

Our geographical location actually makes us one of the least vulnerable countries in Europe.

There are very few less vulnerable countries in the world actually.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121858717#Comment_121858717

Tell that to the Cork fishermen. Why are their ships off our coasts regularly? Have your white flag ready but I doubt they would take much notice even if you buy them a drink.

Not mine but a scenario..

'Let's imagine that Russia loses in Ukraine and decides "we're never going to defeat a NATO-backed alliance unless we can control the Atlantic corridor and prevent US supplies from landing in Europe. So, they decide to concentrate a large part of their future resources on building a blue-water navy, capable of taking an invasion force of 50,000 people anywhere in the Atlantic. They reason that if they can surprise everyone and take Ireland in a sneak attack, they will be able to split NATO across it's weakest point, the Atlantic Ocean.

So, one day, Ireland wakes up from a nap and discovers that a large Russian fleet is landing in Galway Bay, Cobh harbor and Donegal. Obviously, they won't take Belfast because that's NATO.

Within hours, Russian landing craft are spitting up T14 tanks across the west, North-West and South. Knock Airport, Shannon and Cork are all overrun within hours, and Russian bombers and fighter jets are landing there to secure the Irish skies. The Irish military makes the desperate decision to concentrate it's defences around Dublin, only because if they reach Dublin it's game over.'