Thanks Tuc, I’m pleased to see my analysis endorsed by someone of your experience! I should add that the MOD’s Investment Approvals Committee and its scrutineers can effectively be sidelined by industry and the aforementioned Whitehall community forging international agreements (free of technical scrutiny) ahead of the major investment decisions, while telling the Treasury and No.10 that partnering is the only way to make the programme affordable and thus ensuring that only the reduced level of 10-year funding is allocated. Then, at the investment decision point, the faits accomplis of an international agreement and insufficient funding for a UK-only development phase mean that the IAC is reduced to a rubber-stamping role, conveniently limiting the ability of the front line commands to apply requirements which might compel an alternative path. For all the criticism it can sometimes receive, the MOD is not in sole control of these grand strategic games.
Last edited by Easy Street; 1st Oct 2020 at 23:28.