Scotland is due to have a refererendum in September 2014 about whether or not to leave the United Kingdom and become a separate country. Apparently the pro-independence party plan to have fully separate armed forces, and there was an interesting article in Air Forces Monthly about what an independent Scottish air force might look like.
I don't want us to get into the politics of this (see
FAIR WARNING below), but from a purely hardware point of view, it's an interesting and timely GB possibility:
What would you buy for your armed forces if you were in change of an independent Scotland?
What do you see as your strategic and tactical roles?
Would you want to contribute to international operations overseas or just do national defence?
What resources would/could you devote to it?
Would you "buy British", based on proximity, interoperability and the fact that most of your personnel will be ex-UK armed forces, or would you seek to avoid that to develop a distinctly different character for your armed forces?
For non-political reference (true as far as I know but I'm not the expert so by all means correct me if neccesary):
1. The nationalists see an independent Scotland joining the Commonwealth, the EU and NATO.
2. The nationalists see Scottish air-defence (and presumably land and sea too) as being separate, not shared with or contracted out to the rest of the UK, and with "fast jet capability".
3. According to the RUSI (Royal United Services Institute) report which prompted the article, an air force of around 2,500 with a total of about 60 aircraft (all types) is achievable. The article didn't go into Army and Navy issues. RUSI's figures may be contestable, and there may be other analyses out there.
Of course, we don't have to take things too seriously in Whiff World, so if you want to let your imagination roam free then by all means do so. This might extend from simply inventing and putting Scottish markings on a favorite but unlikely type, to giving the country and entire defence industry and building/drawing an entirely original type. Another possibility might be to retcon it: what if Scotland was
always independent, going back to whatever era you fancy in military history (the avoids excluding those who think the only "proper" aeroplanes are the ones with propellors....)
Spinners did a few Scottish Air Force and English Air Force profiles over on What If Modellers in early March:
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,18821.120.html (reply 1061 onwards).
FAIR WARNING:This is a highly contentious political issue in the UK, with increasingly strident and harsh language being employed on both sides, so:
1. PLEASE keep the politics out of this thread or the Mods may well shut it down,
2. By all means go looking for plans, figures and budgets, but bear in mind that there's hardly anything that's been said on this subject that hasn't been immediately challenged by some other party. I therefore strongly advise against taking any real-world article or proposal as "gospel", including the RUSI study I mentioned earlier.
To give you a flavour of the debate, and the difficulty in establishing credible figures and plans, see this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/14/scottish-military-fantasy-defence-secretary