Originally Posted by
Asturias56
The defence budget is constantly whittled away by defence inflation, always higher than its civilian counterpart
This is the best line in the article.
Instead of the inflation rate, we used to get the Department of Trade and Industry Index for (e.g.) 'aviation' or 'avionics'. Historically, each would run at up to twice the inflation rate, sometimes more.
The equipment part of the quoted £46Bn Defence Budget should, in reality, be at least double that if comparing today with, say, 30 years ago. I'm not about to wade through the Indices, but I do recall getting 5% one year in the late 90s instead of 12%. We just had to ask OR what they wanted chopped from the programme. That's not the fault of the procurement system, as implied. And nor is incorrect quantities or 'gold plated' solutions. Or even the Prince of Wales problem, as we haven't been told yet if it's a defect or a fault.
Allied to this is the fallacy of 'fixed price' contracts. As the saying goes, firm is fixed, fixed is variable.
And there's no point Wallace or Hunt banging on about waste. It's actually MoD policy to commit funding to protect those who consciously waste astronomical amounts. Remove that protection, and apply the law. It'll soon stop.