I was reading yesterday about the planned draw down of Leuchars and the flit of the Typhoons to Lossiemouth by end 2014. I also noted that the TGRF will by the end of 2015 be down to two squadrons with an imbedded Training Flight. This will be replaced by a single joint R.A.F./R.N. squadron of F35Bs. What with the reduction of the Army to a force of 82,000 supported by and increase of 15,000 Territorials (Army Reserve as it'll be known) has got me thinking oonce again about the politician's invariable claim that we have the fourth largest Defence Budget in the world.
Without going into the various details of how one thing balances against another in attempts to make direct comparisons, is it now the case, as George Osborne said he wanted to do, that the Nuclear Deterrent is no longer funded by direct Capital spending? and therefore the cost of it is now entirely found from within the ever shrinking fourth largest defence budget in the world?
FB
