Watcher Zero

@ModernNavy The difference was only £41m less spent than budgeted, the relative decline compared to GDP was due to faster than expected economic growth last year.

It might seem a fraction, but 0.09% of UK GDP in 2025 is equivalent to approximately £2.7 billion to £2.8 billion. That was money not spent on defence that the UK Government said would be. Instead real military assets such as HMS BULWARK were cut to save or reprioritise money

The @guardian is plain wrong - "UK spends 2.4% of GDP on defence, a figure Labour has promised to lift". #NATO just reported we spent 2.31% in 2025, less than estimated and below average. Departmental comms purpose is to pull the wool over your eyes @JamieGrierson

@shanaka86 If UK's F-35 and Typhoon fleet operates at 60 to 70% availability that's impressive as its about 20% better than the US is achieving for its fighters.

BREAKING: Britain has fewer than 50 Storm Shadow cruise missiles left. The stockpile that once exceeded 200 was drained over two years of transfers to Ukraine to help Kyiv strike Russian targets deep behind the front line. The missiles worked. They hit command posts and ammunition depots and naval headquarters across occupied Ukraine and Crimea. They helped Ukraine survive. And now Britain has almost none left for itself, during a war being launched from its own airfields against a country that just hit a British oil facility with drones. Brimstone anti-armour missiles sit at 25 to 35 percent of pre-war stocks. Paveway IV precision-guided bombs, the same weapon the RAF used over Libya and Syria, are at 30 to 40 percent. The National Audit Office estimates that Britain can sustain high-intensity combat operations for three to six weeks before requiring American resupply. Three to six weeks. The Iran war is already in its fifth week. If Britain were fighting it rather than hosting it, the cupboard would already be empty. The Army is 10,000 soldiers below target. Type 45 destroyers suffer chronic propulsion failures requiring six to twelve months of repair. The F-35 and Typhoon fleet operates at 60 to 70 percent availability. The industrial base that would replenish stocks runs on rare-earth magnets manufactured in China, the same China that controls 90 percent of the permanent magnets in every guided missile Britain would need to fire and is currently being asked to broker the peace. Any direct involvement beyond basing would require 8 to 15 billion pounds in emergency supplemental spending. National debt exceeds 100 percent of GDP. There is no majority in Parliament for funding a war the Prime Minister says is not Britain’s, fought with weapons Britain does not have, replenished by supply chains controlled by a country Britain needs to broker the ceasefire. This is why Starmer says “not our war.” Not because of principle. Not because of legality, although his own advisors have told him the strikes are legally questionable. Not because of Iraq, although the ghost of Blair hangs over every press conference. Because of arithmetic. Britain gave its missiles to Ukraine. It gave its bases to America. It gave its diplomatic capital to a 35-nation meeting about reopening Hormuz “after the fighting stops.” And it has nothing left to give except words, which cost nothing and accomplish less. Trump knows this. He mocked the Royal Navy in the Telegraph interview. He dismissed Starmer’s windmills. He called NATO a “paper tiger” because the paper is literal: Britain’s defence capability exists on paper. On the tarmac and in the magazines and in the recruitment offices, the numbers tell a different story. The story says that one of the six largest economies on earth, the country that once ruled a quarter of the planet, cannot sustain a shooting war for longer than six weeks without calling Washington for resupply. The bases are full. The aircraft are American. The missiles are gone. The debt is real. And the Prime Minister stands at the podium and says this is not our war while the war takes off from our runways carrying weapons we could not replace if we tried. Britain is not refusing to fight. Britain cannot fight. The doctrine is not a choice. It is an inventory report. And the inventory says zero. open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@thinkdefence Because they get most of their supply of doors through the Strait of Hormuz.

Why do you never see closed doors in these videos?

@Osinttechnical So total mission failure, he spent hundreds of billions of dollars and collateral damage wiped out 6% of the Middle Easts GDP and he's leaving Iran in a stronger place than it was financially and strategically before the war.

Trump says that the US may not strike a peace deal before it leaves, if Iran tries to develop a nuclear weapon he says a “future president like me” would bomb Iran again.

Trump: “We’ll be leaving very soon… what happens in [Hormuz] we’ll have nothing to do with” Other countries can “fend for themselves” if they want gas or oil from the Persian Gulf.

@Osinttechnical So the US lacks mine clearing capability the President is claiming, they can shoot at things on land but if the enemy drop a mine in the water there is nothing the US can do about it.

Trump suggests that the strait may never be safe.

@FaytuksNetwork The Anti-Drone laser is programmed to fire whenever it detects them droning on.

The Pentagon is considering using an anti-drone laser system near the residences of Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio in Washington, D.C - NYT

@Exposer010101 @AP It created the issue, went to war with Iran and left Iran both richer from greater oil exports and stronger with greater territorial control than before the war started. At the same time consuming over $200bn of US taxpayers money and doubling US gas prices for consumers.

@AP True. US doesn't need oil and Hormuz shouldn't bother it. Why on earth it should sacrifice soldiers for an issue that has no impact on it?

BREAKING: President Trump says nations upset by high fuel prices should "go get your own oil" as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Follow AP's live updates. apnews.com/live/iran-war-…

@CrazyFenaker @AP But only bicycles that are powered by Oil, Trump doesn't approve of Renewable Energy like solar, wind or pedal power.

@Blacknatwatch @AP Like the US, went to war and left Iran with higher Oil exports and greater territorial control than it had before the war and ended up begging its allies for a month to bail it out by sending ships to reopen the Strait as the US was unable to.

@AP All of the countries that are running low on oil have let their militaries atrophy and are incapable of opening the Strait.

@otiagosampaio @AP US is the one suffering the worst price rises never mind the couple of hundred billion this war has cost and the latest estimate that 6% of Middle Eastern GDP has been destroyed by collateral damage.

@AP If you depend on the Strait for your energy, at some point you have to defend it. That’s the reality.

@alone_in_bali @Faytuks They are already only accepting the $2m toll in Yuan.

@Faytuks what if iran then said that any ship that trades using CNY are allowed to pass freely but using USD will be targetted. that would throw a wrench on what trump hopes to happen

@KobeissiLetter Course they dont want it to end at the moment, Iran's strategic position has improved as they have gained defacto control of the straight, able to impose tolls, which they didnt have before and their oil export revenue is up by a third since the war started.

BREAKING: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain are "privately urging" President Trump to continue the war against Iran, per the Washington Post. Details include: 1. Gulf countries argue Iran has "not been weakened enough" according to US, Gulf, and Israeli officials 2. Gulf countries were initially upset that they were not given adequate advance notice ahead of the war 3. They also reportedly do not want the war to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior 4. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are "leading" the calls for increasing military pressure on Iran Day 32 of the Iran War has arrived.

@space_ace84 @ukraine_map @Osinttechnical @FaytuksNetwork We are talking about the attacks on civilian energy grids and water infrastructure.

@ukraine_map @Osinttechnical @FaytuksNetwork So blowing up the refineries in Russia are making more Russians want to fight Ukraine?

Israel has pivoted to striking Iranian economic targets as it aims to "create the conditions" for the Iranian regime to fall -Times of Israel Israel aims to cause massive economic damage to the Iranian regime.

@AmericanMartel @ukraine_map @Osinttechnical @FaytuksNetwork WW2 and Vietnam taught us that targeting civilian infrastructure (in this case civilian electrical transformers, power stations and desalination plants) only hardens rather than softens the public resolve.

@ukraine_map @Osinttechnical @FaytuksNetwork I think it primarily impacts the regime. These aren't village-run oil fields.

@AuroraIntel The Iranian stock market advice saying Trump was manipulating markets by posting good news in the morning and bad news at night is holding up. LOL

@harmless_weirdo @NoContextBrits Pineapple is amazing with Gammon, the sweetness of the pineapple with the saltiness of the meat.

@NoContextBrits The pineapple. WTF? I can simply not eat the black pudding or peas, but I don't want that sweet-sour pineapple note polluting my breakfast. There are plenty of times and places for pineapple, but this isn't it.

You have to remove one item. Which is it?

@MarkTom58821077 @ktbresnahan @NoContextBrits Easier to flip when grilling or frying.

@ktbresnahan @NoContextBrits Its a mushroom but why remove the stem

@Keerurgo @JobieTwits @ktbresnahan @NoContextBrits In Britain called Button Mushrooms when small and white (same species as champignons) but when they reach full size and turn black we call them Portobello mushrooms. Portobello is the name of a street market and road in London, it was named for the 1739 victory over the Spanish.

@JobieTwits @ktbresnahan @NoContextBrits I don't think they are italian, we call them "champignons", english market probably chose an italian name to make them look fancier ig?

@Barbes_NL @Suzandy7 @NoContextBrits They start white when small but as they grow to maturity and reach full size they turn black.

@Suzandy7 @NoContextBrits That's no mushroom! Is it? Why cremate it then?

@aslo63 @Barbes_NL @NoContextBrits Portobello mushroom. They are white when immature and black when mature.

@Barbes_NL @NoContextBrits Zal wel een paddestoel zijn maar ziet er vies uit mede omdat t verbrand is. Dus weg ermee.