Scotland has a long history of contributing over its share in the number of soldiers who have fought in various wars. And ships built on the Clyde have always been among the most advanced naval ships to operate at sea. But how would this history pan out in the future if Scotland was to become independent ?
How would the armies of Scotland and England/Wales/NI work together ? Would they want to ? Could they ? Or would they operate under a NATO umbrella ? Or if the SNP was in power would they try to take us right out of NATO ??
There are defence contracts currently being carried out or planned with BAe Systems on the Clyde and at Rosyth Naval Dockyard. I believe the contract for the aircraft carrier on the Clyde is signed and sealed so should (I hope), be safe.
But, even if any current planned contracts were still to come to Scotland, what would or could the future hold for this ? If we don't co-operate on nuclear/army etc then I can't imagine we would continue to receive these large scale and obvious contracts. Perhaps we could still continue to receive those that are less obvious to the public such as electronics systems etc. if Scottish companies happen to be the best in a particular field, but large scale production of ships would surely not be possible, unless of course it was for a Scottish Defence force, but then that would also surely be very intermittent contracts.....
Equally, what would the future be if Scotland remained in the UK ?
Currently the Scottish army regiments have been combined into one main regiment, the Royal Regiment of Scotland (I believe). Has this led to less investment in Scottish forces ? Does anyone have experience of this ? And how does the Navy and RAF etc operate ?
We have lost one RAF base at Lossiemouth I think....please correct me...this is a work in progress so I may have the wrong base there...I know there are two in the same area...
And I think Leuchars has been scaled back ? Is that correct ?
It seems to me it would have been wise to retain a good number of air bases, as its never a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket as they say.
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