UK Strategic Defence Review 2020 - get your bids in now ladies & gents
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Really don't want to bring up the B word, but with £200 billion spent on Brexit and counting what did folks expect other than cuts, cuts and more cuts? That's before you even begin to factor in Covid.
There really will be no jam tomorrow for a very long time, if at all.
There really will be no jam tomorrow for a very long time, if at all.
These latest Defence cuts are very little to do with our ability to afford Defence spending today and much more about the systemic and fundamental misalignment between future ambition and reality. Basically, too much of the budget gets sucked up by too few very very expensive procurements, that means we can't actually afford to operate what we've just spent billions investing in!!
The difference now is there's almost nothing left in the short term budget that can be cut to fund the dreams of tomorrow, which means you end up left with ever smaller numbers of very expensive to own and operate types such as A400 and F35B.
Last edited by andrewn; 22nd Mar 2021 at 20:57.
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Exactly pr00ne... It's about HOW the money is spent. Some poor decision making on show here, I suspect anyway.
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We've bet the farm on the CSG so to see such a lack of long term planning for the air wing(s) is disappointing to say the least. My guess? PoW gets chopped at the next Review and we get another dozen B's as a consolation prize.
Even the USAF is getting fed up with the F-35s voracious appetite for cash and unimpressive in service rates.
With drones coming on strong, why would HMG buy more than the minimum, especially when the tail costs way more than the dog.
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Nope, it only takes a handful of Bs sat atop a carrier for the Government to claim success. Irrespective of what the operational output those slack handful of jets would produce. We aren’t going to get any more than the minimum 48 buy.
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Think the plan for the Reds is one 2/3 scale Tempest and 8 swarming drones. Leeming has other (non flying) stuff going on, probably safe for now at least.
China, who knows. Wonder whether Xi has a word for 'contemptible'?
[QUOTE=SLXOwft;11014125]I assume RAFEngO74to09 heard 22 A400M during the SoS announcement. I thought the UK order was 22, anyway, with the 21st ZM420 in store and ZM421 test flying for Airbus as EC-400 since FEB2018.
Correct - 22 x Atlas was in the announcement video.
Correct - 22 x Atlas was in the announcement video.
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Fair point, France does still have superior functioning military capability, even though Germany spends more on defense than France,
That said, the French forces have failed entirely to contain the insurgencies they set out to quell, in Mali for instance.
So the social utility of the force is in question, large enough to get into trouble, but not large enough to power its way out of it.
Of course that could also be said of the US forces, after some decades of 'nation building' efforts.
In any case, I do not believe the Chinese see these forces as relevant.
That said, the French forces have failed entirely to contain the insurgencies they set out to quell, in Mali for instance.
So the social utility of the force is in question, large enough to get into trouble, but not large enough to power its way out of it.
Of course that could also be said of the US forces, after some decades of 'nation building' efforts.
In any case, I do not believe the Chinese see these forces as relevant.
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The announcement of the 1,000-strong brigade came as military chiefs sought to defend looming cuts to the army by insisting that the new force would be more lethal.
https://www.forces.net/comment/pain-...egrated-review
Mopardave and Etudiant
Aside from the US, who are always going to dwarf us, our allies will mostly still look at us as a strong nation.
Our constant operational commitments over the last few decades and highly competent performances on various exercises mean we still acquit ourselves well.
As a couple of examples, I know Canadians and Omanis who all view our Air Force with awe. Aside from Germany (their military is not in a good way) and France who else in Europe has much to offer?
Aircraft are expensive and nobody has a bottomless pot of cash (apart from Qatar maybe!).
I will grant that there are a couple of nations that we deem to be allies that have huge militaries (India and Saudi spring to mind) but they still hold us in very high regard.
Etudiant.
Are we really going to say that China are an ally? That was the question after all.
If say that even if we’d made no military cuts for the last 40 years we still wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with them on our own.
Cuts are never good news and if you’re on one of the fleets for whom the axe is due to fall I know this won’t feel good. We can’t stand still though.
BV
Our constant operational commitments over the last few decades and highly competent performances on various exercises mean we still acquit ourselves well.
As a couple of examples, I know Canadians and Omanis who all view our Air Force with awe. Aside from Germany (their military is not in a good way) and France who else in Europe has much to offer?
Aircraft are expensive and nobody has a bottomless pot of cash (apart from Qatar maybe!).
I will grant that there are a couple of nations that we deem to be allies that have huge militaries (India and Saudi spring to mind) but they still hold us in very high regard.
Etudiant.
Are we really going to say that China are an ally? That was the question after all.
If say that even if we’d made no military cuts for the last 40 years we still wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with them on our own.
Cuts are never good news and if you’re on one of the fleets for whom the axe is due to fall I know this won’t feel good. We can’t stand still though.
BV
Last edited by Bob Viking; 23rd Mar 2021 at 06:31.