WorkingHard and Proone. £30B? More Noo Liarbour spin? Now reduce that amount by the RAB and depreciation charges inflicted upon (all?) government departments and you will see that the true cash figure is closer to £24B. Not that that is an insignifciant amount (but it is only a quarter of that given to the bloated NHS and only a third of the equally bloated social security budget).
Now lets look at this governments procurement policy (NOTE government NOT military senior officers). How often are the military directed to buy a weapons system which is more expensive than that recommended by the procurement teams? Lets start with Meteor and the Hawk replacement. In the case of the Hawk the cost was approx 1/3 more than the rival solution. Both met the requirement but the MOD were directed to buy Hawk (surely nothing to do with the fact the factory is in Two Jags constituency?). Did HMT provide the 1/3 additional required? Did they b*ggery! That 1/3 had to be found from "savings and efficiency" measures from within the MOD (for which read cuts). Perhaps part of those savings were in not procuring more body armour or armoured Land Rovers!
To say that the government are removed from procurement decisions is utter b*ll*cks.