Comments by "bighand69" (@bighands69) on "Ed Nash's Military Matters" channel.

  1.  @williamchick6649  I will be honest with you the people of Ireland value the welfare state more than a defence force.
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  2. Those aircraft have a lot of fit outs and are under constant improvements. The old saying if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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  3. For Ireland to do that it is going to need to spend about 40 billion on an airfare. US equipment is the best bet has it can easily be delivered across the atlantic. Britain has great stuff as well which can be used.
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  4. Nearly 80% of irish government expenditure is on the welfare state. Direct welfare expenditure in Ireland is €25 billion. The Irish government collects €25 billion income tax. So that means the income tax the average person is paying goes 100% towards those on welfare employment benefits. Until the Irish government and its people sort out the government nothing will change.
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  5. Ireland can have a position of not getting involved in wars if it wants but that has nothing to do with Ireland being able to defend it self. Switzerland is neutral but it has an air force and a capable million man defence force. And it spends about $5 billion per year. There is no reason why Ireland cannot have similar capabilities. Switzerland has about 60 fighter jets. And an amazing air defence system.
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  6. It is a nonsense approach that is insane for any country to go down.
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  7.  @Lapantouflemagic0  Everybody knows what the Chinese technological capabilities are. Not much to be honest.
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  8. An F15 and F16 program would be more suitable. It would give a mixture of Air to Air and Air to ground superiority. And when combined with a ground to air defence system could be enough to dispel an attacking air force. Also have a Naval to air defence system would add to that. To offer defence of such a system would then require ground commando regiments.
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  9. It is much smaller and can be built by hand in the field by operation teams and packed onto a cargo aircraft. Trying to do that with a new A-10 platform would cost $50 billion at least in development and still not be able to do the same job.
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  10. Simple folks with a €500 billion GDP, large IT industry, large instrumentation industry, large medical device industry and one of Europe's largest aluminum plants. I do not think Ireland is that simple and is massively underspending with its defence force. Ireland can easily afford a fleet of F-16s and F-35 aircraft.
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  11. Canada has its own problems with an underperforming defence force.
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  12. If the Irish government did not spend so much on the welfare state they could easily have a force of F15 and F16 and a ground to air defence system that would make Ireland extremely tough to invade by air.
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  13. Ireland is an Island on the Atlantic and it needs more than 20 fighter jets and would needs somewhere at a minimum of about 150 fighters to protect against a large scale naval invasion. Ireland needs to invest about 40 to 80 billion and then about 2.5% gdp of about $10 billion per year. That means ireland needs about 50000 to 100000 full time troops and then about 400,000 reservists. WW3 is coming and people are in denial.
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  14.  @eitleoir170  Ireland needs to invest about €50 billion into its defence infrastructure and then spend about €12 billion every year.
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  15. New Zealand has the welfare state mentality that Ireland has. It will never invest in its defence forces. And when they realize as a culture that they need it well that may be too late. Australia and the US will probably not be able to defend New Zealand.
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  16. Ireland can easily afford 80 fighter jets with that being something like 60 F-16 and 20 F-35. That is what it would take to defend Ireland from a naval invasion from the Atlantic or a break out from the mediterranean.
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  17. In the context of special operations or an expeditionary force it would provide air capabilities. What sets it apart when you read on it is the modern avionics, targeting systems and missiles. A ground troops would also be capable of guiding in missiles to a target that are launched from it. It can be shipped in parts on a cargo aircraft and then built on mission side. A lot of other aircraft would not offer that capabilities. In the future special operations will be using that type of aircraft a lot when normal air resources are not an option or to at least layer into existing air assets. There was similar aircraft used by US special operations during the Vietnam war. Special operations already use Little Bird helicopters in a similar type of air to ground system.
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  18. @Jamie There is no such thing as neutral it does not exist. Hitler invaded several neutral countries and did not attempt to invade Switzerland because had a massive air defence system and large number of defensive troops. Ireland is an Island and needs to make it a fortress. Your attitude is just disgusting at best.
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  19.  @Danheron2  2.5% is about $10 billion per year. That would be to operate a large reserve defence force, air defence system and air force so as to act as a naval defence force. The cost of building a navy is much more expensive and far beyond what I have stated. Especially a navy that could compete against an invading navy.
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  20. Ireland needs a completely cultural change. I though it may have come about after the last crisis but the media holds too much power. Ireland needs to get rid of its welfare state mentality, lower taxes on the working class and open their economy up far too much protectionism going on. At present 80% of the Irish military budget goes on pensions and supporting welfare programs.
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  21. It only becomes a risk if the west does nothing. If they arm the regions to the point that Russia realizes the prices will be so high then they may have second thoughts.
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  22.  @gloin10  The welfare state incorporates all programs that cover socioeconomic sectors and is not just expenditures of employment support or unemployment. 25 billion is for the year planned 2021 and has been stipulated as part of public finances and is not my figure as you are trying to imply. In the real world the Irish government expenditure of the welfare state extends into everything from healthcare, social care, unemployment support, government departments administration and local authority programs. Those are not my definitions but are widely accepted to the point they are even published in simple wikipedia arguments but are also part of academia. I do not particularly want to list all expenditure as that would be tedious but at least 80% of Irish government expenditure is on the welfare state. GDP mean absolutely nothing in regards to this discussion and is an irrelevant figure as it has no applicable means of expenditure.
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  23. Ireland needs a far more simple approach to start off. It needs to grow it defence forces to about 50,000 personnel, needs special operations and then it needs to acquire a more simplistic air defence system involving something like an F16 and F15 program. Ireland currently spends over a billion on defence but most of that goes on pensions.
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  24. Ireland's air defence is currently based on an agreement with the UK government. If there is a major war the UK may not actually be able to honour that agreement. That means RAF aircraft are the defence of Irish Airspace. Just let that sink in.
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  25. There is no comparison between the military of Hungary and Ireland. The military of Hungary has 22000 active personnel and about 25,000 reserve personnel. And its budget is about €2 billion per year. And it also procures equipment orders in the hundreds of millions. About 80% of Irish military budget goes towards pensions and there is no procurement program. Ireland is still using 1970s military weapons in its inventory no amount of cheap Gripen procurements will solve the problems of Irish defence.
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  26. They are talking about spending 3 billion per year on Irish military. And what has happened in Ukraine has freaked them out a little bit.
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  27.  @fentonpainter5275  You are only seeing it in your head.
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  28. It did not matter what aircraft was used they wanted to develop the platform from the ground up.
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  29.  @terranempire725  It would not matter what aircraft they selected as a base platform it was going to be designed and fitted for special operations from the ground up. They went with a blank slate and built their own platform. The Skywarden is a completely new aircraft and its capabilities will not be public.
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  30. And what would Ireland do it if actually detects a Russia submarine. Would little Commie president actually tell them off and go and meet with Putin? I would not be surprised in certain people In Ireland are Chinese assets.
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  31.  @yermanoffthetelly  Irish ships could not engage with a Russia submarine. A Russia attack helicopter would destroy any Irish naval vessel.
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  32.  @hantykje3005  And how could Ireland force it to leave if it decides not to leave. What options do you think are available?
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  33. Some structures are just so dependable that they last for long periods of time and they may also be easy to make repairs or upgrades on.
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  34. Because they would then have to develop the Texen 2 to do the job and it would in effect amount to the same thing.
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  35. Without nuclear weapons there would have been world wars that would have cost billions of lives. In WW2 there was agreements that chemical weapons would not be used but there is no guarantee that WW3 would have had no chemical weapons.
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  36. It is exactly the sort of dumb thing the Irish politicians would do. They are far more focused on buying public votes with billion europe welfare programs than the defence of their nation. It is the sort of thing that actually puts nations at risk of going out of existence.
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  37. Ireland will need to spend a lot more than that to protect it self in the potential upcoming world war.
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  38. Ireland needs to do nothing of the sort. Ireland has the ability to spend about €50 billion on its military build out and then €12 billion per year to maintain it.
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  39. They are not paying for just the aircraft. They are paying for avionics, targeting system and so on. America is the best for a reason.
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  40. You want to know why they were conducting the operations there. They are drilling for an invasion of Ireland when WW3 starts. If they capture Ireland they can for a pincer movement on the Britain from the west and also from the east. By the time the Irish people figure out what is happening it will be too late and no amount of money will then be able to acquire the equipment necessary. Most Irish strategic forts that would defend its coast line have been shut down and turned into EU funded cultural centres.
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  41. That aircraft is needed by US special operations.
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  42. It is only gone if the west does nothing but if it were to arm the Ukrainians with enough weapons to stop the advancement it would send a message that our D list team can stop you and you do not want to see our A list team in action.
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  43. That is all fine and dandy in peace times but if there is a major world war (which is coming) both the UK and US may not actually be able to honour its military agreements.
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  44. Ireland should be ording F35, F15 and F16 craft and A-10 craft.
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  45. @Archibald Tuttle Ireland does not spend money on defence. They would expect switzerland to spend all the money and they get it for cheap. All at the same time the Irish government spends about €60 billion on its welfare state. Ireland currently spends about €1 billion per year on its military with about 80% of that going on pensions.
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  46. Ireland does not need any of that. It needs about 80 fighter jets that are suited to engaging naval invading forces. And it can afford it if it wants to. Once WW3 breaks out it will be really difficult to actually build up the military defence forces of ireland.
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  47. You are clueless. America is not going to pick sides between Ireland and the UK so you can get of that silly horse right away. How will Ireland withstand the overtures of Putin when he invades Europe with Putin promising a United Ireland.
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  48. Ireland's problem is not money nor its government. It is the culture of Ireland that is the problem. People are more interested in the welfare state in Ireland. If the people had the right state of mind Ireland could have one of the most powerful militaries in Europe if it desired. Ireland Currently spends almost 70 billion per year on the welfare state now imagine if 10 billion of that was spent on modernizing the Irish defence forces and also expanding it size. Ireland could easily build it self a 100,000 strong military with state of the art F35 and F16 fighters and a powerful ground based air defence system.
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  49. Ireland as a country could easily afford a modern airforce if it desired. The will of the culture is not there. Ireland values the welfare state far more.
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  50. That is a nonsense story.
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