UK Politics

5428 readers

126 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk

flamingos@feddit.uk

frankPodmore@slrpnk.net

Britain to introduce new inflatable warships to expand fleet (ukdefencejournal.org.uk)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

“These ships are undetectable by radar, highly mobile, and, in the event of enemy attack, can be easily replaced with a foot pump and a bit of patience,” he said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] tal@lemmy.today 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

A Downing Street source suggested that if successful, this scheme could be expanded to include inflatable army tanks and fighter jets, allowing for a fully air-powered military by 2035.

Inflatable tanks are a real thing as decoys.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_tank

Inflatable dummies consisted of a fabric covering supported by a network of pressurized rubber tubes that formed a kind of "pneumatic skeleton". These were generally preferred in the field, despite their tendency to rapidly deflate if punctured by accident or shellfire. In one operation in September 1944, the British deployed 148 inflatable tanks close to the front line and around half were "destroyed" by fragments from German mortar and artillery fire, and by Allied bombs falling short.[9]

EDIT: In fact, if the British Army keeps any in inventory, they might have more inflatable tanks than they do real tanks at this point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_British_Army

Challenger 2 is currently being modernised and reduced to 148 upgraded Challenger 3 by 2027.[154][155]

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I feel like that is kind of part of what makes this joke so funny, it is a joke but it also it really desperately isn't the more you think about it which is undeniably absurd.

The more expensive the equipment the more genius idea it is to produce blowup mockup decoys. The cost to benefit analysis is astronomically in favor of spending a bit on big blowup floaties if there is even a chance the deception will work.

For example if you put a 30 foot blowup skeleton in your yard, most people who aren't experts in D&D will not know it isn't actually a real skeleton demon. Try it yourself! I don't recommend trying this at home with decoys of Cruise Missile launchers however.