U.S. and UK Defense Cooperation

This might be common knowledge but I didn't know about it until tonight.

Whithouse

The UK currently stations over 800 British personnel in the U.S., conducting a wide variety of activities from conducting RPAS (Remotely Pilot Air Systems) operations in Afghanistan from Creech AFB, Nevada, to working side by side with American colleagues on major acquisition projects such as the Joint Strike Fighter and C-17 projects, to working with U.S. counterparts on cyber and space cooperation. Approximately 200 British officers are on exchange with the American services to develop joint approaches to develop capability and increase interoperability.

During the month of March, 2012, alone, 1,100 UK military personnel will take part in 10 training exercises with U.S. forces across the country, to include a detachment from the Royal Regiment of Artillery participating in an adventure training expedition near the Grand Canyon, a squadron of Royal Air Force (RAF) GR4 Tornadoes conducting live-fire heavy weapons training in Arizona, and an RAF squadron participating in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, Nevada

Nothing new mate
Nothing scary......yet......maybe
The Brits and yanks work extreamly closely in many many things
I like to try and think of the Brits as a voice of reason
But the Americans have better training facilities for example you mentioned their air force there
American bombing ranges and flight training areas are just so much bigger and less restrictive than those in Britain

Hopefully us Brits are keeping the Americans in check... for the moment!

reply to post by Pixiefyre


The special relationship is common knowledge in the military. The US has deep ties to all Commonwealth countries. GB submarine sonar and torpedoes are US technology as are some other things on your subs. I have visited GB subs and surface ships on several occasions and have been on ships that GB, Aussie, and Canadian officers were visiting. The standard exclusion of foreign officers from classified spaces is understood by all and is accompanied by something like "this is a classified space that contains the secret technology but if you were to go in there, you might find a great similarity between your sonars/torpedoes/radars/etc. and ours."
What is expected is that in any future conflicts all the Commonwealth countries and the US will find themselves on the same side [or will aid one another with equipment and intel, such as in 1982 in the Falklands.]

Nothing new here to be sure. Having said that, a Wing Commander or Sqn Ldr from the 617 'Dam Buster' Squadron has just qualified to pilot the impressive B2 bomber at Northrop Grumman. This was published on our Military website and I'll get details out as soon as I can.

Edit: Sqn. Ldr. David Arthurton was the chap who piloted a B2 to land in Australia in 2010, but I'm pretty sure somebody else has recently qualified.