And the short answer after the 2012 Autumn Statement is "Yes." The longer answer from the
Guardian is this:
The need to extend the point at which austerity ends to 2017-18 has required Osborne to set out further spending cuts worth over £31bn between 2014 and 2018 or a real-terms cut of 19% if health, schools and international development continue to be protected.
The size of the MoD budget means that if you were to protect it, you'd have to find £6bn or so from another Departmental budget, making the whole thing undoable.
So yes, I'd say that a "good" result would be limiting the next round of cuts to say £4bn p.a. - which is going to force some very tough choices. Trident replacement is likely to be at the top of the list given the costs and the bespoke capability that it represents, I would suggest.
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