Yes Prime Minister - Bernard Woolley on defence capabilities

this kinda tv will never return. not inclusive enough

Torpedoes landing on a golf course are truly a remarkable feat of engineering - usually those kinds of weapons are used by submarines and travel subsurface towards their target: A ship or another submarine.

The quip about the Kremlin knowing the NATO defense reports before number 10 does makes me wonder: Did anyone in the Kremlin see Yes Minister and what did they think of it?

Perhaps this is why NATO is giving Ukraine the old kit, it's the only stuff that they know works

everyone knew that Trident, Polaris was a waste of time, it would only be used in the event of full scale nuclear war, if the Russian conventional forces did ever attack at this time the only way we would have stopped them was tactical nucs, which would most probably led to use of strategic nucs, and then bye bye everyone been nice knowing you, thankfully the russians also knew this so never attacked.

I love the line about the new torpedoes not working, when the British sunk the General Belgrano in the Falklands war they used Mark 8 torpedoes that first entered service in 1927

...72 Hours

The UK navy just tried to launch a trident, and it was a dud. The second in a row. The UK has nukes that literally don’t work.

Amazing how this old sit con is still current.

This might get a few more views in the coming days

Just gets better as time passes.

Trident still doesn’t work … 😂

No wonder they are testing weapons now in Ukraine 😂

Is this not a documentary?

The real joke is that the Russians were just if not more useless than than NATO forces.

according to all our UK newspapers for the last week....as true then as it is today !

Turns out that some any years perhaps decades later, Trident doesn't work

Of course, after the end of the Cold War we know that in fact Western Armies are in fact much superior to Eastern ones. Aside from Russian incompetence in Ukraine, but also in Georgia in 2008 (which they won but should have won more easily), or Chechnya where they lost the first time and backed one guy in a civil war to win the second one; the Gulf War demonstrates conclusively how powerful western style armies and precision weaponry could be. The Chinese revamped their entire military doctrine after the Gulf War, for example. Their army was equipped in many ways worse than the Iraqis who had higher quality Soviet equipment (compared to Chinese stuff which was copies of the last generation of Soviet tech).

Neither Russia after '91, Iraq, or the PRC were the Warsaw Pact and USSR though, that was certainly a different beast, but one that nonetheless, recent history shows us, was falling behind NATO where it counts on the modern battlefield.

Today its doubtful russia could do it in 72 months 😂

Russia didn't even last 72 hrs, poor bastards.

Having spent the last three and a half years of my military career monitoring the Command finances relating to defence capabilities, I often felt I was in an episode of Yes Minister; Life imitating Art.........

😂😂

72 hours

Oscar Blaketon has a point.

For more then 40 years the US Air Force and Navy successfully tests its mainstay nuclear missiles in actual launches Every year, thousands of miles over the Pacific. There has been about a 95% success rate, with impact on target.

It turns out, all those descriptions of the European and American armies? The Russians watched Yes Minister and misunderstood. They thought it was a documentary and modeled their army after it.

Turns out, Russians were even more incompetent.

The line about the American soldiers in Germany not knowing what side they're on reminds me how Putin's North Korean troops recently turned on the Russian troops because of the lack of communication.

Russia has shown how NATO are incapable of fighting anyone that has a modern military,yet they can talk a good War.

Little did they know that the state of the Russians’ weapons readiness was far worse and their command structure was completely unwieldy. A 24 yr old German was able to fly a rented Cessna right to red square right through Russian air defences at 120mph and nobody stopped it.

Who's here in 2025?

absolutely true. during the 50s and early 60s we had nuclear bombs carried by vulcans who flew constant 24 hour flights in a constant state of preparedness. only problem was neither the pilot or anyone else in the raf could authorise a nuclear strike off their own authority! they needed to phone the mod when early warning systems told of an attack! authority to deploy would then be assessed and if necessary permission given! problem was the mod only worked 9 to 5 mondays to fridays! there was no provision for getting the relevant minister or authority out of hours! indeed the air vice marshall for defence said on his retirement ...this was an obvious flaw .i tried several times to get in place a system that did not leave us completely vulnerable.the ministers and civil servants wouldnt budge! i was told damn it all man our private hours are for leisure we cant be at the beck and call of the miltary .so if russia attacked out of hours we were defenceless! this was pretty much the state of things for the first 25 years of the cold war! during the cuban missile crisis for example when ww3 was a real possibility the relevant people including the prime ministers staff the defence minister and top civil servants were all at a golf tournament and would not cancel! the pm had no advisors and told us wed have to wait about taking defensive measures until hed consulted with them! incredible!

Plus ça change...

I don't know, what you don't know, Prime Minister 😊😊😊😊

I lived in Lincolnshire not far from RAF Scampton. I watched an RAF officer set off for Scampton where he would be on standby with a nuclear equipped Vulcan bomber. An hour later he was in the local pub ......his Vulcan wouldn't start.
I asked if he he had asked the Kremlin to delay the war as we weren't ready!

He’s actually correct about the new torpedoes here. The new TOW, tracked by optical wire, torpedoes were completely unreliable.
When HMS Conquerer attacked the Belgrano in ‘82 she used WW2 era torpedos.

Its not a comedy its a documentary

Headline "U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer says his country is ready to put "boots on the ground" to support peace deal in Ukraine". I guess they will be picnicing with lady soldiers in the bushes too.

Could have been written a week ago😂

Unfortunately it's not a joke.

Almost over, not much longer to go now…..

I was in the US Army stationed in Germany when this episode aired. As amusing as Bernard's speech was, trust me, we didn't picnic in the woods with lady soldiers. For a start, there weren't enough lady soldiers to cavort with, and second, the lady soldiers were all rear echelon, and we combat types didn't see much of them in the field.
HOWEVER, it might have been true to a degree during the Vietnam War. US troops in Germany during that time did have drug problems. But afterwards, almost all of it got cleared up.

One thing that always struck me about this scene is that the audience is laughing at every joke. They're having a great time, even though the subject is pretty grim.

Then Bernard says: "If there's a nuclear war Prime Minister, it won't last long enough for the weapons to be tested".

And everyone goes completely quiet. Not a sound, nothing. It's intended to be funny but nobody is laughing, they're all just digesting the implications of what he just said. Really notable moment of seriousness in an otherwise consistently comedic show.

Of course this was a fear of Russia before we knew what their armed forces are really like... i.e. sh*t, and what their equipment is really like... i.e. sh*t

The American troops in Germany are so high on drugs they don't know which side they are on anyway. As of March 2025 I heard America wants to leave their airbase in Rammestein they have had since the 50s which in addition to less of their military presence in Europe will also impact the local economy millions of euros annually. Best get that all sorted out gentlemen.

Back then they at least have some common sense, today they are clamouring for war with Russia.

Makes ya think, huh?

My dad was so smitten by the series that he bought the books too. The best part is it never grows old. Same old..same old..

Truth.
When HMS Conqueror launched its torpedoes at the ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War,
it used torpedoes from World War II.
Because those were combat proven and had the biggest chance of sinking the Argentinian cruiser.