Submissive Blonde Can't Stop Cummings...

[thunderbird7]

So what pearls of wisdom will the myopic moron bring to military intelligence? Other than trying to look good cosying up to the blokes who do all the hard work?

[Out Of Trim]

Maybe someone should check Cummings eyesight first... He may be turning a blind eye to our nations Defence Requirements! . :suspect:

[Green Flash]

Perhaps the MOD is moving to Barnard Castle?

[reds & greens]

Perhaps his ideas and methodology are long overdue.
maybe procurement and capability need 'new eyes'...

[diginagain]

Is he planning on visiting Abbeywood?

[typerated]

I think we have got ourselves a British Robert McNamara

Lets see if it works out the same way

[Finningley Boy]

There is always the chance that he could pleasantly surprise most. In which case, if I find myself among the most, I'll write out what I've typed elsewhere about Cummings then eat the paper.

FB

[Chugalug2]

Non paywalled version here :-

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-dominic-cummings-military-sites-defence-sas-a9607636.html

[typerated]

That said - a forceful broom might do some good. Still plenty of sacred cows.
Each round of cuts you think they will go rather than operational units ... but no!

[Imagegear]

How is it that the hired help must do the dirty work that average politicians would not touch with a long barge pole.?

IG

[Finningley Boy]

Just briefly reading the link posted by Chugalug 2, I had no idea this was the biggest Defence review since the end of the Cold War? And it reports, initially, in the Autumn?!

FB

[MPN11]

How is it that the hired help must do the dirty work that average politicians would not touch with a long barge pole.?

IG
One might say he was ‘hired to help’ as the average politician (and there are many who are average at best) is incapable of handling the issues.

That said, I remain deeply uncomfortable about the power he wields (and potentially mis-uses) as an unelected shoe-in at the top table.

[chopper2004]

I think we have got ourselves a British Robert McNamara

Lets see if it works out the same way

Rumour that one USAF (?) General said ‚better Cholera than MacNamara‘ during the conflict lol

It appeared that the enemy body count was the bottom line ..

[diginagain]

How is it that the hired help must do the dirty work that average politicians would not touch with a long barge pole.?

IG

"Tradition." Service folk have been doing it for millennia.

[thunderbird7]

I think we have got ourselves a British Robert McNamara

Lets see if it works out the same way

At least McNamara had the good grace to review and admit his mistakes after the event - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War

An absolutely fascinating film dissecting the Vietnam war, decisions and assumptions made.

I suspect 'Classic Dom' does not have a bone of humility in his body to have such reflections.

[Duchess_Driver]

That said, I remain deeply uncomfortable about the power he wields (and potentially mis-uses) as an unelected shoe-in at the top table.

whilst I concur, I must ask has it not been that way throughout history - it’s just much more “public” these days.

[Davef68]

If you ever read his blog, he quite fancies himself as a military strategist/procurement expert.

[Easy Street]

I think it’s worth reflecting on how most of the decisions in Whitehall get taken. Ministers don’t usually get every possible combination of choices; having set the general direction of travel, they are later presented with recommendations with just enough wiggle room to allow them to apply their imprimatur. It’s typically unelected officials who prepare those recommendations, with inputs from think tanks, academia and professions (teachers, lawyers, military etc). When a minister has ideas that run against conventional Whitehall and professional thinking (Gove, Williamson, Patel spring to mind as obvious examples) it tends to upsets the smooth running of the machine, causing everyone to get very upset about it and criticise the (elected) ministers for upsetting the applecart. So is democratic input to the system welcomed or not? To my mind it is a bit rich to criticise Cummings on the basis that he is ‘unelected’ when his principal interest seems to be getting other ‘unelected’ folk to develop policies and offer choices that better reflect the democratically-elected ministers’ priorities. And since he is a personal appointment of the PM, I would hazard a guess that he is rather better attuned to those priorities than unelected people such as Mark Sedwill and before him Jeremy Heywood, who exercised a very great influence indeed over proceedings during their respective tenures.

Too much democratic input can be a bad thing, don’t get me wrong. I was amused by a Defence Select Committee last year where good old Mark “ne-Francois pas” spent the best part of 10 minutes lambasting the MOD for the lateness and failings of the A400M, brandishing anonymous emails of complaint about it he’d received from service personnel and warning that the Department needed to learn its lesson, only to pivot without a flicker of ironic self-awareness to lambasting the MOD for having selected the E-7 Wedgetail without a formal competition against a ‘only exists on paper’ European AEW offering :hmm:. A politically-appointed adviser offers a middle ground between the unelected bureaucrat and the grandstanding politician: potentially a good thing.

In that context I am very interested to see how Cummings’s views on procurement can be squared against the political pressure which will inevitably be applied to support UK industry. For if the political direction is to pump money into the bottomless pit of BAES et al in the name of economic stimulus, DE&S will have little choice but to act as a complicit middle man and the services will find it harder to buy off-the-shelf, which is exactly the opposite of what needs to happen to break the MOD’s ‘gold plating’ habit. It might be that Cummings has as much work to do on ministers, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury as he does on the MOD and service chiefs. If he can expose some of the vested interests and slay a few sacred cows, I for one will be cheering him on.

[PAXboy]

In commerce, companies hire a 'consultant' to do the dirty work for which they do not have the stomach and wish to skip the blame. Politicians do the same. In short - it's what humans do.

Sometimes, a person who has been in an organisation/company/political party for many years can see what needs to be done and has enough knowledge of the organisation to do it. However, for the most part, organisations tend to land up supporting themselves. Some charities, after 50+ years find that keeping the charity in place becomes more important than the people it was formed to help. Humans are not very good at change - the Pandemic is a superb example of how difficult it is for people to change their behaviour.

This does not mean I am a fan of Cummings for he has proven himself to be a liar and that is not good. Particularly when his boss is a serial liar too.

[tucumseh]

Easy Street

Excellent post. The only thing I'd say is that one must differentiate between Commercial and Military Off the Shelf. I still twitch at being asked why I didn't go COTS on a Missile Approach Warner. But at least I could invite the beancounter to find one himself on the High Street. Unlike a certain helicopter IPT, who rejected 3rd Line demands for a MRH bolt, telling the production controller to shoot off down to Halfords, as they sold one the same length for push bikes. Try mentioning Hydrogen embrittlement and Vacuum Cadmium plating (not gold plating, but the workshop could do both themselves) to Halfords.

I'm sure a procurement expert like Cummings will understand all that, and that the Requirement Scrutiny regulations require the Customer (i.e. the Service, not the procurer) to answer 35 basic questions before the requirement even gets to DE&S. For example:

1g. Are there any alternatives and, if so, would they be any cheaper?

1f. Has the requirement been overstated (possibly so as to fix on a particular solution)? If so, is there any acceptable change...?

[Finningley Boy]

Rumour that one USAF (?) General said ‚better Cholera than MacNamara‘ during the conflict lol

It appeared that the enemy body count was the bottom line ..

Very possibly Curtis Le May!?

FB

[Cornish Jack]

History repeating itself? I have mentioned elsewhere the similarities between the activities of Cummings, today, and Lord Esher prior to, and throughout, the Great War. The import of Esher's activities will not be unknown to a student of political history, such as Cummings, and the 'power without accountability' aspect would be immensely appealing. The lack of clear leadership in the squabbling pack of Asquith, LLoyd George et al, allowed Esher to influence by stealth. The unsavoury activities in Political and Diplomatic circles made Service leaders into targets by self-seeking groups. I have mentioned previously that I consider Cummings to be dangerous. I can see no reason to alter that view.

[Video Mixdown]

It seems to me that the very same people who constantly criticise just about every MoD policy and procurement programme for the past 50 years are now apoplectic that the government is actually trying to do something about it. I have no doubt that whatever decisions and changes are made will outrage some and please others, but at present you have no idea what they may be. The childish name-calling and conspiracy theories just make you sound a bit unhinged.

[thunderbird7]

...as opposed to 'classic Dom' who seems to have an over inflated sense of his own importance? Changing his blog to pretend he predicted a pandemic? The patent bull***t surrounding his epic drive to Durham? His belief that everybody else is stuck in the dark ages? You know the sort of guy - new broom, change everything, I'm right you're wrong, don't do as I do, do as I say?

Procurement undoubtedly needs a pull through but thats a subject on its own, not as straightforward as awarding ferry contracts to companies with no ships or millions of poundsworth of PPE contracts to companies with no parliamentary oversight. He's a shyster with an ulterior motive which is not 'the good of the country'.

[tucumseh]

Video Mixdown

Indeed. Well said.

What I'd like to see Mr Cummings ask: 'What would have prevented (Project X) being a disaster?' This is a military aviation forum, so let's just say Nimrod and Chinook HC Mk3. (Around £5Bn wasted at the time, plus loss of capability).

I'd be astonished if anyone in MoD Main Building told him the truth... 'We should have implemented mandated regulations'.

He could then head down the M4 and ask the same question at AbbeyWood. Someone brave enough, and with nothing to lose, might say the same; but I doubt it.

Mr Cummings might think 'This isn't so difficult', and he'd be right.

He might then ask the question a different way. 'Why is it that more complex programmes, at the same time, were delivered to time, cost and performance, or better?'

There are few, if any, left who could tell him the truth, but it's in the Post Project Evaluation reports. 'We ignored directives, and implemented mandated policy'.

Where he, and the Government, need to be really brave is to recognise these truths, and sod hurting the feelings of the retired officers and officials responsible. The real problem he might face is that some of the politicians who knew the truth, in advance of the failures, still sit on Defence committees; or at least are still MPs or now Lords.

[Fonsini]

Am I really the first person to recognise the brilliance of that post title ? :D

[Two's in]

If I wanted to understand the effectiveness of MoD procurement in detail, I would go to the end users, not the people whose jobs depended it continuing the way it is today.

[tucumseh]

Two's In

In the UK MoD, there is a formal route by which the Services, specifically the end user (at squadron level, in aviation), may influence the acquistion process, and what is procured. It doesn't always work, but that is for them to address at the most senior levels. Procurement priorities are set exclusively by the Services, except when there is a political overrule. When you read people complaining about 'procurement' here, in the media and in Government, they seldom realise they're usually complaining about shortfalls/failures within the Services.

[Green Flash]

Fonsini - no! I had a chuckle when I saw it too. Might say alot about me but as you say, brilliant.

[Saintsman]

Anything that changes the excessive cost of military equipment should be welcomed. We all know the saying that the equivalent civilian item has two zeros added to the price.

If we want an effective Military in the coming years, something has to change. Especially as the country will be mortgaged to the hilt following the Covid-19 costs.

[Lyneham Lad]

Article in The Times:-
Cummings to tour the MoD with Major Fabrication and Colonel Oftruth (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c5c2650a-c2c2-11ea-ac82-8308736f5ec7?shareToken=5f09d082cec31ccb6a0aa31a37e6204a)

Article intro:-
The name’s Cummings, Dominic Cummings, driving licence to kill. Yes, everyone’s favourite misfit is getting back behind the wheel, this time to tour the country’s top secret locations.

The jumble sale genius wants to visit the SAS in Hereford, Porton Down in Salisbury and the Special Boat Service in Poole. The story was revealed this week by Sydney Morning Herald, sparking fury in No 10 until it realised he wasn’t a new Tory in the north but a newspaper in the southern hemisphere.

The paper had got hold of details of Cummings’s visits, in which he has made clear he does not want a “fanfare” on arrival, preferring to blow his own trumpet in the Sunday papers. He has also requested to talk to “middle-ranking officers such as majors and colonels”. If there isn’t someone drawing up an itinerary including Major Fabrication and Colonel Oftruth, the army deserves to be disbanded.

Worth a read!

[Green Flash]

Are the RAF fit for China/ Korea/ Middle East?

Is anyone? :uhoh: Especially if all 3 kick off at once ....

[Asturias56]

"Are the RAF fit for China/ Korea/ Middle East?" I cannot see any reasonable scenario where the RAF would get involved with China or Korea - remember in 1950 they didn't participate (tho some of their pilots did).

Middle east? Unlikely to be a major set too - just the usual, ongoing punishment bombings, taking out individuals and the occasional fire fight so yes - doable

[Finningley Boy]

Are the RAF fit for China/ Korea/ Middle East?
Personally I think not, transformation after transformation, and stats before capability.
I’m not sure if, after initial losses you’d have enough Wg Cdrs to shout at them about your shiny new flying badges, and to look at you in your cool cheap leather jackets and aviator stable belts.
Perhaps it really is time for Cummings, the RAF has nothing in focus, in front of a real world out there that doesn’t give a tuppence about 1940. I think he will see straight through the bravado, and the job creation and retention schemes, and see mis-management, and perhaps dangerous incompetence, on an industrial scale.
Think Xi, then work backwards.
I've no confidence in Cummings doing anything but buggering up the UK military posture. I fear he has the "time for techno revolution, and it'll be much cheaper!" philosophy. UK conventional forces have no depth at all. Its been said that the Army will be lucky to retain one Battalion of the Parachute Regiment. We'll get a 'less means more' argument for sure to justify what will be a straight forward expenditure raid. The fig leaf on this occasion will be Cummings' Cyber/AI/Space defence revolution. All vital indeed, but dangerous to apply a binary shift away from conventional defence, what scraps remain.

FB

[Corporal Clott]

Countdown begins

shiny new flying badges, and to look at you in your cool cheap leather jackets and aviator stable belts

Seeing as all of those items are paid for at personal expense to the individual that wishes to wear them, then why on earth would any of it matter to DC? It’s the crazy waste elsewhere of public funds that he is after - infra costs, equipment procurement, red-tape, use of people in uniform that have no significant combat or combat-support role, PFI contracts and parochialism are some of his targets. From your outburst are you feeling a bit threatened by his expected areas of digging? :E

[Countdown begins]

Countdown begins



Seeing as all of those items are paid for at personal expense to the individual that wishes to wear them, then why on earth would any of it matter to DC? It’s the crazy waste elsewhere of public funds that he is after - infra costs, equipment procurement, red-tape, use of people in uniform that have no significant combat or combat-support role, PFI contracts and parochialism are some of his targets. From your outburst are you feeling a bit threatened by his expected areas of digging? :E

We’re on the same page, I welcome his attention as the military does not need a single extra penny, it needs to cut the waste.
An air brick in a room that allows airflow, which stops mould and the expense of cleaning and repainting each year, central Messing, installation of solar, and I could go on.
You are so right about paying for those items, and they’re important, because they say a lot about the pride of the individual wearing them, but I don’t think mine was an outburst, chum, as much as yours was not a tantrum.
Absolutely zero of what he does will have an impact on me, but I agree with his type of character looking at you.

[Asturias56]

Shed a few VSO positions as well - all those Admirals!!!