Shock horror! Defence Procurement is late and over budget. Give me a break, it's been part of the institutionalized failing of the MoD since the bluff and bluster of fighting the Cold War. In those days nobody ever realized just how late or shoddy the equipment was, because nobody was ever firing back at us. Now we are 5 years into a series of major asymmetric campaigns, having our Forces still equipped to stop 3rd Shock Army at the Coppengrugge Gap or stop Russian hunter killers off Norway doesn't look like such a smart move. We still hadn't recovered from the equipment losses in GW1, thirteen years previously, when this lot kicked off.
History demonstrates that we will never know the exact nature of the next threat until we are engaged, but the ability to rapidly and effectively re-equip to offer a capable fighting force is the true measure of an intelligent Armed Forces. Sadly the UK appears to be incapable of doing this through its 60's era acquisition strategy. The system is broken and needs fixing, but despite the well intentioned military professionals who make the best of a bad job, until the incompetence, graft and myopia are removed at senior levels we are destined to continue playing for the second 11 in global conflicts.
Iraq and Afghanistan have all too readily demonstrated that the true cost of this incompetence and negligence is not measured in lost sales bonuses for retired senior offiicers or slow promotion for civil servants, but is in fact measured in the lives of our fellow servicemen and women.