Britain relies on France for its defence? What could go wrong?

Oh, how about a French aircraft carrier breaking down?

As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a historic London summit to announce the use of RAF jets off the Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him she is no longer seaworthy.

“She’s meant to be heading to Afghanistan to support the war there but is instead in home port with a faulty propulsion system,” said a French Navy source.

“This is a carrier which is meant to be defending not only France but also Britain over the next decade. As far as the London summit is concerned, her breaking down could not come at a worse time.”

Following Britain’s strategic defence review last week, it looks certain that the UK and France will each have just one operational aircraft carrier each towards the end of the decade.

But Britain will have to rely solely on the Charles de Gaulle until at least 2020 while the Queen Elizabeth, a new carrier, is being built.

This follows the announcement of the scrapping of the carrier Ark Royal and its Harrier Jump Jets.

I earlier covered the sad state of the Royal Navy, which is being reduced to it’s smallest size since the 16th century. And now this: reliant on Britain’s most ancient enemy for naval security, yet that enemy is… incompetent.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future of the US military under the social democracy the Democrats so dearly desire. Europe, when it went down this path, could rely on us to bail them out. Well…

Just whom do we rely on?

And, Anglophile that I am, I have to say it again: Nelson weeps.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

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