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Comment by anu_gupta | Hacker News Reader

> I am writing this from the UK where we don't have aircraft carriers or indigenous launch capability anymore.

What are you talking about? The reason you're being downvoted is that trite, inaccurate Daily Mail-ish opinions are just dumb.

The UK doesn't have aircraft carriers because it fucked up the decommissioning / commissioning cycle. HMS Queen Elizabeth will be operational in 2020 [1]. You seem to be implying that a choice has been made to no longer have aircraft carriers in order to prioritise welfare.

And what is Trident if it's not "indigenous launch capability"? When did the UK ever possess land based missile capability?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth-class_aircraft_...

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"indigenous launch capability"

The UK did briefly have the capability to launch satellites with home grown launchers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero_%28satellite%29

The UK gave up on ground based launchers as they were far too vulnerable - although the first missile silo designs were actually done for the Blue Streak missile:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Streak_missile

The choice was made to decommission the Invincible class early to save money. You can wriggle all you like, that is true.

Trident cannot place satellites in orbit, nor launch probes to Mars (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24729073).

That's 2 for 2

Wriggling?

What is the HMS Queen Elizabeth? When did the UK ever have the sustained ability to launch into orbit?

Go back to reading the Daily Mail, son, it's a safe place for bigotry.

Show me some Daily Mail links then boy, because I haven't read them. In fact if I were going to guess what paper said "no nukes" I'd say the Grauniad. India's policy of "guns not butter" cannot be justified given the very real issues facing their population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model

What is the Queen Elizabeth? I'm glad you asked. It's a carrier that will come into service at some point in the future and we could not afford to keep a carrier capability going in the meantime. FACT. It's a class of 2 ships, one of which will be mothballed as soon as it is built as we cannot afford to operate it. FACT. The project is ongoing because penalty clauses mean it would cost too much to cancel it. FACT. The aircraft that will operate from it are the second choice as we couldn't afford to fit catapults. FACT.

Shall I go on?

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