Großbritannien will als „Ergänzung“ zur Nato eine gemeinsame Seestreitmacht mit neun europäischen Ländern aufbauen

Canada also considering joining. So almost NATO navy sans USA.

Good stuff. Get the DIP sorted and actually get some more assets funded and ordered whilst we’re* at it so we can actually be a consistently active member in this and other* joint defence pacts and agreements.

Hoping it won’t fall apart, but the UK sorely needs something like this for the North. Cooperation with the French and Italians for global reach would also be great.

Unfortunately, the Royal Navy is in a woeful condition and needs significant investment. Right now we can barely field a single attack submarine in Asia and the Atlantic, a single Trident Sub, a single Destroyer in the Middle East and a single Carrier Group.

Most of the problem is constant maintenance delays and backlogs.

This could be more historically significant than people realise. Reading between the lines, I think the formation of this is an admission of a loss of faith in a larger NATO ability to act, and now alternatives are being sought out, with smaller groups of states who trust one another.

I think this signals we’ve finished our process of relative decline on the world stage, as this alliance with the the Uk as the undisputed head, not being subordinate to America, will likely be the biggest restoration of British influence post WW2, from which we’ve been on a path of relative decline and basically just a US lieutenant.

We can fill our second carrier for the boys with their planes 

This does sound like it’s effectively mirroring what they already do, but formalising a completely separate process which means that if NATO should fall, it shouldn’t particularly impact operationally. 

Sounds very much like a contingency plan 

Is there any point to this? We are one election away from aligning our country to whatever trump wants.

If trump wants to invade a European country, farage would say which country.