Let's face it, the Country is skint and spending needs to come under control thanks to the previous clowns in government. I actually think that the SDSR is pretty good from the Govt given a "hospital pass" from the previous encumbents! Here's my two-penneth:
RN
Kept the 2 "big ticket" items alive with CVF and Trident. Well played as the "smaller ticket" items will be played for at a later date?
Saving money right now by ditching Ark Royal and/or Lusty or Ocean.
Saved the Royal Marines
Army
Merging the many Division HQs into one - just like Navy and Air did some time ago.
Get rid of lots of tanks that have done c0ck all for years!
Reduce artillery numbers - unguided munitions are becoming a thing of the past.
Reduce their uniformed Admin overhead - about time too, the RN and RAF did this 15 years ago.
RAF
Reducing HQ Air by 25%.
Ditching the lame duck, and from what I hear, questionably safety audited MRA4.
Ditching single role capabilities like Sentinel after Afghan ops are over to be replaced by undisclosed multi-role capability.
Ditching GR9 - that only went on ops twice using VSTOL in Sierra Leone and Falklands, the rest of the time using CTOL.
Winding back RAF Regt a little bit - how on earth can we justify the current levels of FP after Afghanistan is over?
Rationalising the SH and AT fleets.
Joint stuff
Rationalising the Defence Estate - long overdue!
Manpower - the emotive bit!
Civil Servants - shock of 1/3rd to go, but let's face it long overdue. I know Service Guys at DE&S in departments with 20-odd people in it who exclaim they have no idea what they all do/achieve! For example, what does the Program Support Function actually do!!! Why do we still have service travel cells with 2-3 civil servants when we can easily book online using a Wg Cdr's or Gp Capt's corporate GPC? I would suggest that many savings can be made - just depends on the Unions!!!
RN - 5,000. Hard, but I suggest achievable when you look at maybe 20% redundancy and the rest natural wastage/low recruiting.
Army - 7,000. As said above, plenty of fat to be trimmed within the Army's Admin overhead.
RAF - 5,000. Hard, but again achievable like the Navy.
I suspect that there will be jobs in and around the new force structure under private support contracts; so with a nice redundacy package and immediate pension this might not be so bad.
From an RAF perspective, at least all the "let's chop the RAF and give it to the RN and Army b0ll0x went away". I honestly believe that this is the best we could have hoped for and I believe that the Govt and Def Chiefs have got it about right.
So there you are, I thought I would post an alternative view - it makes a change from my usual whining and whinging!
Standing by for incoming!!!
LJ