Leon
It's the timing that upsets the top shop.
The BOWMAN HF replacement was specified, trialled, delivered and in theatre, all in the space of 2 months in 2003 - and not under a UOR. UORs took far longer!
A month later, the BOWMAN main contract was let to buy its predecessor. This was so embarrassing, the BOWMAN IPT lobbied for the replacement programme to be cancelled, but the PM told them to push off, the replacement would prevent losses whereas in many ways BOWMAN was going to contribute to losses (and so it proved). But they were partially successful as the replacement, at first scheduled for 3 "special" users, wasn't pulled through for everyone else. But BOWMAN did eventually make a supplementary buy outwith their main contract for proper antennae, which had been left out of the contract. Radios. No antennae. You couldn't make it up. Mind you, first things first. The batteries didn't work either, as well as costing 3 times as much as those from other suppliers, and being to a 10 years out of date specification (and not built to that spec). And don't mention battery chargers. Or exploding batteries. Or the total recall and destruction order, that left troops short of power for around 2 years. As the General Officer Commanding said in a press briefing in January 2006, the BOWMAN HF replacement was "the comms system of choice in AFG". What an indictment.
Point being, we need to avoid waste like this before deciding on cuts, otherwise the cuts are from an uninformed and false baseline.