Quote:
Originally Posted by RN7
Bryn Monnery tried to make sense out of an independent Scottish military. This dates back to late 1990's figures.
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FWIW, in Indyref 1 in 2014 the SNP proposals for an Independent Scottish Armed Forces were based on Scotland getting the following 'share' of UK resources:
Total manpower of 20,000 (all services) - 15,000 Regular, 5,000 Reserve - which would have manned:
4 x Frigates
Unspecified number of smaller vessels
16 x Typhoons
Unspecified number of transport aircraft / helicopters
2 x Army Brigades (1 Regular, 1 Reserve)
It should be noted that these were the SNP proposals - effectively a 'wish list'. At no point did the UK Government ever confirm that we would actually get any of the above (I seem to recall various articles that speculated that it was highly unlikely we would get any Typhoons, the best we could hope for were Hawks). AFAIK there was no expectation that we'd get any Challengers - the heaviest armour we were expecting was Scorpions / Scimitars.
I also think manpower would have been a challenge, particularly as I think a lot of people looking for a long term military career would opt to serve in the British Armed Forces.
The proposed annual defence budget was 2.5 Billion Sterling, which would have equated to approx 1.7% of GDP. An independent Scotland would have sought NATO membership (like EU membership there was some debate as to whether we would have to apply as a new member or not).
Again, this is all IRL, so not relevant to T2K, but it looks as though Bryn's numbers weren't too far out.