Originally Posted by
Chinny Crewman
Where are his opinions regarding the shortfalls in equipment, worsening pay and conditions, failure of the reserve recruitment program .....
He'll be in the Lords next year elevated by DC because he towed the line like the rest of them.
This CDS does express his opinion in public and appears to know exactly the line between getting sacked or sidelined and getting his message across. For example:
...at the Royal United Services Institute, in what he described as "an outing of professional conscience", he said Britain risked being left without enough military manpower in the future, with the Royal Navy particularly vulnerable.
He said: "Unattended, our current course leads to a strategically incoherent force structure: exquisite equipment, but insufficient resources to man that equipment or train on it.
"This is what the Americans call the spectre of the hollow-force. We are not there yet; but across defence I would identify the Royal Navy as being perilously close to its critical mass in manpower terms."
Gen Houghton suggested spending decisions were too often made "with an eye on supporting the United Kingdom's defence-industrial base" and said a programme of "balanced investment" in manpower and equipment was needed.