Originally Posted by
Easy Street
tuc,
Given the industrial politics that have surrounded the carriers ever since their inception, is there any chance that proper requirement scrutiny could have ever have stopped a determined minister from approving their construction? I strongly suspect that all of the scrutiny reports will have duly highlighted the issues around affordability of the whole package (which in any case have been staring everyone in the face for years without access to the technical or financial scrutiny) yet here we are. I think the nub of this problem is political: a preference for investment over spending, with industry having the dominant influence and credulous Navy leadership only too happy to play along.
Not a hope in hell when the driving politician is first Chancellor and then Prime Minister and adjusts the programme timing for political reasons regardless of cost impact.
I am afraid that the days of Admirals resigning over political decisions are long gone. VSO's have worked out that:
A. Military resignations have stuff all effect on political decisions, and there are always well behaved candidates to fill their shoes.
B. The VSO's themselves are not going to be serving when the politically launched chooks come home to roost. The politicians are equally likely to be out of office.
C. Before anything much happens there will be another Defence Review to confuse the picture further.
N