Fromthe paper ORAC quoted:-
"It is frustrating to read a paper that sets out the plan for the next 10 years of the armed forces and not be able to find any actual numbers in it. At its simplest, what does the plan look like – does the UK still plan a ‘Future Force 2030’ – is the aspiration to offer a brigade, a division or something else? What operations do we want to do as a nation – is it to deploy a division for 6 months, or sustain a brigade indefinitely?This is the problem – there is just no information on what it is Defence thinks it will be capable of actually delivering as a coherent formed force. There is lots of information on individual capabilities, but no real sense on how they all come together and form a fighting force.
In a similar vein, one is left with the impression that for all the talk of ‘tough decisions’ and ‘sunset / sunrise’ the MOD doesn’t want to tell us what will really be taken out of service, or when. The page on the Royal Navy refers to ‘retire legacy capabilities’ but doesn’t discuss what these are – is it missiles, ships, aircraft? What is a legacy capability and when does it leave service?"