UK Strategic Defence Review 2020 - get your bids in now ladies & gents
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...n-cards-for-uk
Defence research agency for 'high-risk' projects on cards for UK
Legislation to pave the way for a US-style defence research agency to back high-risk research projects is set to be announced, government sources confirmed.
The idea, which was in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, was the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, who has written extensively about the success of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Some commentators had expected it to be quietly shelved after Cummings’ departure from No 10 but ministers said they thought it would help the UK to be at the cutting edge of developing technologies.
An announcement from the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, could be made as soon as this week, with £800m of funding set aside. The UK version is expected to be called the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). Kwarteng’s intention is for the agency to be free of some of the rules that usually govern investments made with taxpayers’ money so that it can back projects in the knowledge that they could fail, government sources said.
The agency is also expected to be exempted from the Freedom of Information Act – a move that will raise concerns that it could become a secretive nexus between the government and arms industry.
The Conservative manifesto said the agency would “support blue skies research and investment in UK leadership in artificial intelligence and data”. Darpa, which has existed for more than 60 years, works closely in the US with private-sector firms and has been involved in the early-stage development of many technologies originally created for defence purposes but which have had much wider use.
In a 2017 blogpost, Cummings wrote: “In the 1960s and 1970s a combination of unusual people and unusually wise funding from ARPA created a community that in turn invented the internet … and the personal computer.” Cummings said he believed freeing the UK from the constraints of EU state aid rules after Brexit would allow taxpayers to back creative early-stage research.
When Cummings left Downing Street last year there was speculation that he might be given the plum job of leading the powerful new agency, but government sources played that down on Wednesday. “The agency is independent of government. It will have its own chair and chief executive – that’s for the agency to decide,” a business department source said.
The hope is for the new body to be up and running by 2022.
Defence research agency for 'high-risk' projects on cards for UK
Legislation to pave the way for a US-style defence research agency to back high-risk research projects is set to be announced, government sources confirmed.
The idea, which was in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, was the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, who has written extensively about the success of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Some commentators had expected it to be quietly shelved after Cummings’ departure from No 10 but ministers said they thought it would help the UK to be at the cutting edge of developing technologies.
An announcement from the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, could be made as soon as this week, with £800m of funding set aside. The UK version is expected to be called the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). Kwarteng’s intention is for the agency to be free of some of the rules that usually govern investments made with taxpayers’ money so that it can back projects in the knowledge that they could fail, government sources said.
The agency is also expected to be exempted from the Freedom of Information Act – a move that will raise concerns that it could become a secretive nexus between the government and arms industry.
The Conservative manifesto said the agency would “support blue skies research and investment in UK leadership in artificial intelligence and data”. Darpa, which has existed for more than 60 years, works closely in the US with private-sector firms and has been involved in the early-stage development of many technologies originally created for defence purposes but which have had much wider use.
In a 2017 blogpost, Cummings wrote: “In the 1960s and 1970s a combination of unusual people and unusually wise funding from ARPA created a community that in turn invented the internet … and the personal computer.” Cummings said he believed freeing the UK from the constraints of EU state aid rules after Brexit would allow taxpayers to back creative early-stage research.
When Cummings left Downing Street last year there was speculation that he might be given the plum job of leading the powerful new agency, but government sources played that down on Wednesday. “The agency is independent of government. It will have its own chair and chief executive – that’s for the agency to decide,” a business department source said.
The hope is for the new body to be up and running by 2022.
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Surely this is an admission of the folly of the breaking up of DERA and trashing the legacy of all its predecessor organisations.
Shakes head in disbelief.
Shakes head in disbelief.
Thread Starter
Times today say s that the Army are proposing to mod/upgrade 150 Challenger 2 tanks at a cost of £1.2 Bn with a new German 120mm gun, scrap 77 Challenger 2's, retire the Warriors early instead of upgrading them and replacing them with Boxers at £ 1,5 bn instead
Planned to be announced after the Defence Review is published
Planned to be announced after the Defence Review is published
If the former, that's a lot, but not extraordinary when you look at the funding chucked at the Integration Authority and Military Aviation Authority, neither of whom actually do anything in their titles.
If the latter, stand by for a cut in the defence budget in order to contribute, ignoring the fact that project teams will still have to pay to 'pull through' the technology and apply the science.
A scientist somewhere will be presenting this as cost neutral, and a beancounter will be saying that's one small step from a savings measure.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Sir Humphrey's Thin Pinstriped Line....
https://tinyurl.com/3s5bnvtv
To Boldly Sail No More - Is There a Case for Scrapping Royal Navy Frigates?
https://tinyurl.com/3s5bnvtv
To Boldly Sail No More - Is There a Case for Scrapping Royal Navy Frigates?
Thread Starter
Jeez!! This is what happens
The RN is thinking of cutting escorts partly because they don't have enough people to man them and the Carriers at the same time (an outcome many of us forecast years ago) - but do you think once they cut to 17 they'll get the them back in 5 years time - I doubt it ....................... And the ones that are left will be buzzing around the carriers leaving gaps al over the shop - brilliant!!
The RN is thinking of cutting escorts partly because they don't have enough people to man them and the Carriers at the same time (an outcome many of us forecast years ago) - but do you think once they cut to 17 they'll get the them back in 5 years time - I doubt it ....................... And the ones that are left will be buzzing around the carriers leaving gaps al over the shop - brilliant!!
Is it worth noting that all this is media speculation? AFAIK we are not gong to hear anything definitive for a few weeks yet. They are entitled to their opinions, but what Lord West thinks about the future of the RN and Lord Dannatt et al about the future of the Army is just opinion. Oh yes, and the DM is suggesting the RAF Regt is for the chop, so it must be true.
Jeez!! This is what happens
The RN is thinking of cutting escorts partly because they don't have enough people to man them and the Carriers at the same time (an outcome many of us forecast years ago) - but do you think once they cut to 17 they'll get the them back in 5 years time - I doubt it ....................... And the ones that are left will be buzzing around the carriers leaving gaps al over the shop - brilliant!!
The RN is thinking of cutting escorts partly because they don't have enough people to man them and the Carriers at the same time (an outcome many of us forecast years ago) - but do you think once they cut to 17 they'll get the them back in 5 years time - I doubt it ....................... And the ones that are left will be buzzing around the carriers leaving gaps al over the shop - brilliant!!
Since then there has been ministerial guidance to put more warships to sea - partly because of the need to contribute to NATO. A lot of HQ type posts, occupied by senior people, have been axed in order to recruit more personnel to go to sea. Manpower is planned to increase by 3000 over three years.
I imagine that all sorts of options are being looked into. As Sir Humphrey's Twitter says, nothing has been decided. The cynic in me wonders if some of these things are leaked so that the real decisions do not look so bad.
Cross fingers!
Yes an awful lot of rumours and yes probably also some softening up so that the real thing seems less bad when it happens. All I would say is that politically and presentationally, cutting frigate numbers would be very difficult for HMG given all the recent puff about "the growing navy" and I'd be surprised if Johnson didn't veto the idea. It will certainly have been an option considered, and therefore available for leaking in the traditional way, but possibly no more than that. I guess they could just about spin it as a temporary short term dip in the context of longer term growth but I really can't see that appealing to the PM. But then who knows, we'll just have to wait and see,
Absent a clear leader, the process is inevitably degenerating into an intra-service scrap, with the Treasury taking copious notes about the weaknesses pointed out in each service's presentations be the other services.
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
UK following Russia into era of Hybrid Warfare?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/r...fuse-832sw9tfs
Royal Marine commandos on mission to disrupt and confuse
Small groups of Royal Marine commandos will be deployed on covert missions overseas to operate in the “grey zone” between peace and war where they can disrupt enemy activity.
Lieutenant Colonel Simon Rogers, commanding officer of 40 Commando, said that they would carry out “special operations” in sensitive places where a conventional deployment would increase political risk.
Commandos will take on the role of special forces so that the “highest end troops” are free to focus on the most demanding operations, he said.
Tasks could include deception operations where commandos send fake electronic transmissions to confuse adversaries, or missions to disrupt online systems and deceive enemy forces by making them think UK troops are positioned elsewhere.
Rogers told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute think tank that special operations referred to normal activity in unusual or sensitive places where sending large numbers of troops would cause problems for the government.
He said “special operations are now no longer the preserve of special forces” and that under the Future Commando Force programme the Marines would take on some of their roles to “ease the burden”.
What is more, terrorist threats and hostile state activity are overlapping and they are on a global scale,” he added, noting that the Future Commando Force programme needed to increase the Marines’ ability and capacity to operate in a “sub-threshold” space, a type of warfare where armed clashes are avoided.
By stopping the adversary operating in that area between peace and war, this could in turn prevent such activities leading to all-out conflict. Rogers added that the UK needed to ensure there was a “cost to malign activity below the threshold of conflict”.
Vice Admiral Jerry Kyd, fleet commander of the navy, told the conference that the military needed to recognise that the UK’s adversaries sought to win battles without having to take part in a conventional war.
That meant troops needed to be more proactive but still able to fight in a full-blown conflict. “When deterrence fails, we go to a shooting war very quickly indeed”, he said.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/r...fuse-832sw9tfs
Royal Marine commandos on mission to disrupt and confuse
Small groups of Royal Marine commandos will be deployed on covert missions overseas to operate in the “grey zone” between peace and war where they can disrupt enemy activity.
Lieutenant Colonel Simon Rogers, commanding officer of 40 Commando, said that they would carry out “special operations” in sensitive places where a conventional deployment would increase political risk.
Commandos will take on the role of special forces so that the “highest end troops” are free to focus on the most demanding operations, he said.
Tasks could include deception operations where commandos send fake electronic transmissions to confuse adversaries, or missions to disrupt online systems and deceive enemy forces by making them think UK troops are positioned elsewhere.
Rogers told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute think tank that special operations referred to normal activity in unusual or sensitive places where sending large numbers of troops would cause problems for the government.
He said “special operations are now no longer the preserve of special forces” and that under the Future Commando Force programme the Marines would take on some of their roles to “ease the burden”.
What is more, terrorist threats and hostile state activity are overlapping and they are on a global scale,” he added, noting that the Future Commando Force programme needed to increase the Marines’ ability and capacity to operate in a “sub-threshold” space, a type of warfare where armed clashes are avoided.
By stopping the adversary operating in that area between peace and war, this could in turn prevent such activities leading to all-out conflict. Rogers added that the UK needed to ensure there was a “cost to malign activity below the threshold of conflict”.
Vice Admiral Jerry Kyd, fleet commander of the navy, told the conference that the military needed to recognise that the UK’s adversaries sought to win battles without having to take part in a conventional war.
That meant troops needed to be more proactive but still able to fight in a full-blown conflict. “When deterrence fails, we go to a shooting war very quickly indeed”, he said.
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can't see them chopping the Herc - you can't do everything with an A400...........
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