I have long thought that Cummings would agitate for a rebalancing away from ‘intervention’ type capabilities to focus resource on those needed for European and Atlantic security, which as well as being the UK’s core defensive interests also fit well with his technological and scientific agendas. I think that would be the right thing to do, provided that we can get past ‘use it or lose it’ as the force becomes more specialised, it becoming harder (and a lot more expensive - eg burning off 5th gen flying hours on Op SHADER!) to use it for other tasks. More importantly I think the great British public could very easily be convinced that that was the right thing to do. The service chiefs might not like it though. These reported discussions sound very much as if that’s a possible direction of travel, although I am standing by to be corrected on Cummings’s influence over Government decision-making
