Thanks ORAC - that's looks like a horribly accurate forecast of the issues ................ It looks as if something BIG will have to go - "The MOD probably faces a somewhat schizophrenic few years ahead of it. On the one hand, it has got a very generous budget outcome, which will help fund major improvements to its capabilities and ambitions. On the other hand, it remains in a state of near perpetual crisis when it comes to realising in year budgets and will find itself constantly forced to make in year cuts that reduce activity, output and morale, in order to stay solvent.
The IR is an opportunity to reset the EP – by providing political top cover to delete multiple projects, remove significant costs from the EP and then use this new direction to fund ambition elsewhere. If done sensibly, then the opportunities over the next few years are huge. There is opportunity ahead – a balanced EP, with new capabilities like robotics, autonomous drones, cyber forces and North Atlantic Surveillance properly funded will be a game changer for so much of what Defence aspires to do. But to get there is going to require some painful defence cuts to find the space and headroom to make it happen. What is not clear is whether this is deliverable, or if the MOD will continue to exist in a state of financial challenge.
This challenge becomes even more considerable when put in the likely context of the post COVID world. With economic pain ahead, and more financial challenges likely, the MOD is probably not going to get a large budget boost anytime soon. Instead, it will be scrabbling for resources alongside other equally worthy departments."