...or, putting the RAF in Rafale. From a story last year:
...Air Vice-Marshall Bagwell said that one way around the shortages was to collaborate more with the French [more here].
“It looks like we are going to twin 3 Squadron [a typhoon squadron] with one of the [French] Rafale [fighter-bomber] squadrons. I’ll make a prediction we will have British officers flying Rafale from a carrier within a few years. I’m quite sure of it.”..
Now:
Bandits à neuf heures, Jacques! RAF pilots have language lessons so they can use French aircraft carrierRoyal Navy top-gun pilots are being forced to learn French so that they can fly from France’s flagship aircraft carrier.
The Navy pilots are training with the French, whose jets they may have to use while they await the delivery of the new Joint Strike Fighters, which are unlikely to be ready until 2020.
They will use French to communicate with their Gallic counterparts in the air and in the officers’ quarters on board France’s carrier, the Charles de Gaulle.
Reach for le ciel: Royal Navy pilots will learn to fly French Rafale fighters...A senior Royal Navy officer said last night: ‘Who would have thought that more than 200 years after the Battle of Trafalgar, we would be asking the French to train our Naval fighter pilots? Our relationship with the French has always been a bit tense, so this will be a big test of co-operation.
‘For decades, our perception of the French has always been that they arrive when the battle is over. Now David Cameron has forced us to join forces, take French lessons and eat their food.’..
Fings certainly ain't wot they used t' be (h/t Richard Bray). Who'd a thunk the British military would have to go bilingual too?
And Nelson wept.
We have nuclear weapons because the French do, Prime Minister.
Soon the word English, will just mean a weak minded slave.
How low are they willing to go to pretend they have not become Europes rug?
So will Wellington weep.
Now David Cameron has forced us to join forces, take French lessons and eat their food.’..
That's going to be a big perk, eating the French food.
The food British forces usually eat is disgusting.
(mostly deep fried greasy stuff)
It's all bad except for the French food part. And wine with dinner!
It's really amazing what the UK has done to itself.
A precautionary tale for the attentive...a post nationalist win for the euro socialists...
This is what occurs when the socialists run a country's military down. For the Falkland's adventure the Brits had to rescue the Hermes from the ship-breakers.....
Then there was that fiasco with Canada's WW2 relic the Bonaventure....
One of my US associates in the USN...described Canada's newer frigates..."OUTSTANDING...the bureaucrats musta been sleeping and the RCN got something useful...before they woke up...."
The Brits used to be a world power just like America.
Nothing ever could take the world power away from the Americans though ..... right?
the world of pop stars learns from history better than world governments. ie, the managers of current sugar pop artist learn why others faded from the spotlight in the past. Too bad the same can't be said for great world powers.
French food has got to be the mostly highly over rated cuisine in the world. I think the only people who think it is great are the french. The best meal I ever had in France was a beautiful spicy lamb with couscous in an Algerian restaurant.I have eaten in British army officer's messes and French army officers messes and I can say that I would much rather eat British Army food than French. I love French cheese and bread, but that's about the only good food they have. A meal in A French army officers mess consisted of boiled macaroni (no sauce), boiled lentils and a slab of very rare unchewable meat that rumour had was horse. Although there was an endless supply of wine and very good table service because the French army has a mass of short time conscripts that they must find employment for. Breakfast consisted of bread, cheese, and instant coffee served in a cereal bowl with milk. There is a reason Napoleons troops didn't have the strength to get to Moscow and back.
All that aside, there is a reason that the english and french don't get on in Canada. They are one of the great historical rivalries of all times, having been enemies for a thousand years. What where the odds they they wouldn't get along if they had to share the same country? I don't know if it is true or not, but I have read that the reason the Brits have nukes is because the French do.
I must disagree, minuteman. Some French food is rather yummy.
Somewhere, Napoleon is having a good laugh.
Mais oui.
they're all celtics, so who gives a shiite
French food has got to be the mostly highly over rated cuisine in the world.
Take a full course at a reputable institute in Professional Cooking and you'll find most of the terminology and techniques were all invented by the French.
You'll also find that all of the Red Seal Chefs teaching are French Cuisine trained.
Does that mean you can go to France and all the food will be great?
No.
Just as there are bad Chinese restaurants, so there are bad French restaurants.
I’m guessing that there will be an element of danger for the RAF flying and landing, especially carrier landings, with the FAF Rafales that wouldn’t exist if the Brits had their own carrier based strike fighters.
So will the British pilots learn to surrender at the first threat of force? That would be truly French.
Globally English is used as the universial language of Aviation, and what country refuses to switch? Oh that'd be France, check out their air traffic saftey records, via Air Traffic Control incidents, to that of English speaking nations? Really have a gander. England is deader than a nit, gone gone her backbone sold by the progressives leftards-her lungs and heart eaten by the progressives at a Multiculture convention.
Re: French Food - it was great in 1977 when I first went to France. Went back again in 2005 with my sister and daughter and was "shocked and appalled" at the uniformly bad food in the restaurants. Went with a friend to a 5 star restaurant in Paris and it was excellent and we also enjoyed crepe restaurants and had excellent Sushi on our last night there. The food sections of MonoPrix and other "supermarchees" were excellent but the restaurants were terrible. It is my understanding that the poor quality was related to the appalling service of the staff - who once hired, could not be fired. Was in Italy in 2008 - Quelle Difference!
Not a day goes by that another ignominious milestone is unpassed by the Brits. Not a day goes by that we see that society become weaker, less free, and a more distant memory of its greatness.
I wonder how the real Brits can stand it. There must be a few of them left, probably mostly older generation, and obviously not enough to turn things around.
Is this the future of the USA as well?
Old Lori
It's a harbinger...
Left to their own devices the US, the UK, Canada, and probably Australia disarm in "peacetime", even if it is not very peaceful.
The loss in blood and treasure when the shooting starts again, and it always does start again,
is heartbreaking but inevitable.
Si vis pacem para bellum.
When will they ever learn?
Wretchard*:
"...the court of last resort for any nation should revert to what it has been in the past: national authority."
PM Harper:
"Harper had a serious message for his fellow Tories.
He warned the more than 2,000 people gathered that power is shifting in the world in sometimes dangerous ways.
"In such a world, strength is not an option; it is a vital necessity," he declared. "Moral ambiguity [and] moral equivalence are not options; they are dangerous illusions. And national unity, in fact and in purpose, is our greatest asset."
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/10/harper-calls-for-a-muscular-canada
"*The Return of Rube Goldberg"
"The key to understanding calls by the “international community” to stop the Syrian government from suppressing dissidents is to ask who is going to answer the phone."
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/06/12/the-return-of-rube-goldberg/#more-15182
Hey! Just like Canada!! If you want to be in the military as a career and advance past Sergeant you MUST speak French. It's all part of the Great Canadian Pander.
Most English officers (and least the ones claiming some modicum of ambition and genteel aspirations) until some-time after the Napoleonic wars had a high probability of speaking French and quite well.
French was and had been the international language of diplomacy and general common world/european language the way English is now, since Latin had rather fallen by the way-side as being esoteric after the middle ages.
In fact IIRC, the treaty of Versailles was one of the first international treaties NOT in French. Look how well that turned out.
@Posted by: Rose at June 12, 2011 5:56 PM
Good one Rose. The French military should all have mandatory english. The time will probably come again where we have to bail out their sorry a$$es. It's a power trip thingy I guess. Not very logical though.
More than that, Sasquatch. The other carrier, Invincible, had already been sold to Australia two months before. The Australian government allowed Britain to revoke the terms of sale while under way to the Falklands. Prior to that, it was technically an Australian warship.
And of the modern aircraft carriers entering service in 2014 and 2016, one has already been sold.
Old Lori: "Is this the future of the USA as well?"
Yes. It's the price of bankrupt national finances.
Speaking of naval vessels entering service, how is that used submarine deal working out?
(haven't heard anything about them for quite some time now)
@Posted by: foobert at June 13, 2011 12:38 AM
One hit bottom while in training manuevers recently. Damaged and in for inspection. Several sailors injured. Not sure about the other two and how the refits are going. The Brits knew these subs were lemons when they sold them. Hope we never actually have to rely on them for defence.
Hey Brit,
ses votre tour dans le baril.
@foobert: it has cost considerably less that building brand new ones would have cost. And no, the subs were not lemons. The Canadian government leaving them sitting in salt water unmaintained for two years while making up their minds about buying them was what caused all the damage.
They were bought to keep repair yards in politically sensitive areas busy.
Also a bit of anti-sub training if it can be squeezed in.
So far they have more than lived up to their assigned mission.
.
On the bright side, Canada has the only French troops that have never surrendered en masse to the Germans! Bwwahhaahahahaha!
Don't be stupid, Bear. Canadians mass surrendered at Hong Kong and Dieppe. Only ROC battalions were involved. Does that mean that FC troops are or were better than ROC troops?
Every nation has its large scale surrenders. It's always the result of dismal leadership. The villains of the above were our own Crerar (by all honest accounts a moron) committing Canadians to Hong Kong after Britain had written it off, and Churchill and Mountbatten deciding on Dieppe as a way to keep Uncle Joe from screaming about a western front.
"And Nelson wept." "So will Wellington weep." And Winston Churchill, greatest Briton of all time, is no doubt spinning in his grave.
So, they're no longer Limey's and are now Winey's.
Forgive my ignorance but why doesn't Britain use their Eurofighters. Didn't Brown order another 40 aircraft in 2009? Why aren't they using those?
Warren, Eurofighters can't take off from British carriers. They're not big enough. They can only operate VTOLs like Harriers. I believe that the Eurofighter needs more runway than even the French carrier, which is much bigger than the British ones, can provide.
Well cgh I have built a 1/32 scale model of one and it does have a tail hook. I think most fighter aircraft nowadays do have carriers in mind when they are designed.