Nerds Republic

Britain is to step up its fight against ISIS as MPs vote overwhelmingly to back military action in Syria. Today’s lengthy vote in Parliament saw MPs vote by 397 votes to 223 (a majority of 174) in favour of action.

The vote means RAF Tornados armed with state of the art missiles could be unleashed on ISIS targets within 24 hours.

Many Labour MPs were swayed by a breathtaking speech from Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn in favour of military action.

“ISIS hold us in contempt. They hold our values in contempt. They hold our belief in tolerance and decency in contempt. They hold our democracy, the means by which we will make our decision tonight, in contempt. And what we know about fascists is that they need to be defeated. It is now time for us to do our bit in Syria,” he said to sustained applause from both Labour and Tory MPs.

The Prime Minister launched a plea for bombing raids in Iraq to be extended into neighbouring Syria to eradicate the “women-raping, Muslim-murdering, medieval monsters hijacking Islam for their warped ends”.

“These terrorists are plotting to kill us and to radicalise our children right now. Do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat and do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands from where they are plotting to kill British people, or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us?” the PM said.

Having reluctantly granted his MPs a free vote, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the Commons the case for air strikes “did not stack up.”

His position as Labour leader looks increasingly fragile after dozens of Labour MPs backed the Tory government, after David Cameron warned Britain had to strike at the heart of ISIS or “wait for them to attack us”.

Outside the Houses of Parliament hundreds of people protested against military action, including one woman who lay down under a lorry. She refused to move from under the HGV for about 30 minutes – bringing traffic to a standstill – as protesters marched through Parliament Square.

The protester was eventually dragged out from under the vehicle by police. Scotland Yard said one man was arrested for highway obstruction and being drunk and disorderly following the protest.

This is a big blow for the leader of the labour party, Jeremy Corbyn. He is fervent anti war campaigner but he has been unable to bring the party round to his opinion. Instead of imposing the whip he has been forced into giving his MPs a free vote and it looks like more than half of Labour will vote for Britain to commence airstrikes.

Presuming there won’t be a dramatic night where parliament suddenly change their mind, this is the kind of arsenal the government have at their disposal:

An RAF Tornado GR4 equipped with Brimstone missiles

The RAF describe the plane as:

‘a two-seat, all-weather, day/night attack and reconnaissance aircraft. It has been in service with the RAF for more than 30 years, but a combination of major upgrade programmes and numerous continual enhancements has kept the aircraft amongst the forefront of all attack aircraft.’

More pictures of the aircraft 

A number of different kinds of missiles can be attached to these elite fighting machines:

Paveway IV bombs

Paveway IV is an advanced and highly accurate weapon which is laser guided. It provides the RAF’s strike force with a state-of-the-art precision guided bomb.

Brimstone

Brimstone is an air-launched ground attack missile. It’s used against mass formations of enemy armour and utilises an active radar homing seeker to ensure accuracy even against moving targets.

Storm Shadow

Storm Shadow is a long-range, stand-off, air-launched missile and is the most advanced weapon of its kind in the world. The missile is equipped with a powerful warhead and is designed to attack important hardened targets and infrastructure such as buried and protected command centres. It has an unbelievably large range of 250km.

We will also be using long range missiles that can be fired from our warships and submarines in the area:

Tomahawk cruise missiles

These missiles have a range of over 1,000 miles and can be redirected to a new target whilst in the air. These low flying rockets can also send back images to a control centre.

The final weapon we have at our disposal are drones. They are currently being deployed in Afghanistan but could be re-routed to the new campaign in Syria.

An RAF Reaper drone

These are becoming ever more popular in modern warfare, David Cameron has recently purchased twenty new state of the art drones which will replace the now outdated ‘reaper’. These crafts are capable of carrying out both recognisance and ground attack missions.

Whether or not you agree with taking military action in Syria you can’t help but be impressed with the tools the British military have at their disposal.