Grauniad:
Accounting for war Robert Fox
..........The Ministry of Defence is in its worst financial and managerial crisis since the mid 1970s, and then the UK was not involved in wars in twin theatres with no early end in sight. "The forces are being told to get a quart out of a pint pot and they are not having it much more," said a senior Labour party adviser on defence this week...........
There are four immediate conclusions to be drawn from the revised estimate of the costs of the campaigns to the UK voter and taxpayer......
Second for the UK is the horrendous crunch over funding and equipment. The kit for all three services in the field is being used up and cannot be replaced at an adequate rate. It also means robbing the programmes for equipping for the future. Currently the military chiefs and the government are locked in a battle to lop £3bn from current equipment programmes. Exasperated, the men in uniform are saying something big and high profile, like part of the submarine build, or the aircraft carriers, must go. Politicians like Gordon Brown and Des Browne are worried about the effect of a rundown of key programmes on jobs - they are trying to keep two yards going on the Clyde, for example. So there is stalemate, and there are indications of one or two high-level resignations in the wind.......