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UK Strategic Defense Review Thoughts
Nov. 1st, 2010 09:44 pm Just for a change from my usual focus, some thoughts on the newly announced UK Strategic Defence Review. I spent 20-odd years working in the defence industry, so it is an area I have fairly extensive knowledge in. I haven't been through the full document as yet, I probably will in the near future, but for the moment this is working solely from the press reports.
A lot of opposition to the cuts (and have no doubt, they are cuts) will likely come from people who just think that cuts to the military are a bad idea (particularly in time of war), which is a perfectly valid opinion, but the military does not exist in a vacuum, it is an arm of the state and it is no good having a strong military if it comes at the cost of a broken economy. The problem here is that the UK Treasury has a well established history of ignoring strategic necessities and limiting defence spending in such a way as to try and force the armed forces to conduct their missions with less than the necessary resources. So do the cuts actually make sense? Answers are mixed....
( SDR Thoughts )
Conclusions
Some of these concerns are hopefully addressed in the full document, and this is much better than many people had feared (much as it goes against the grain to praise a member of the government the Minister of Defence appears to have fought his corner well). but there is definite cause for concern at the cutting of entire missions and some of what remains is flimsier than it should be, the CVFs and their air group in particular.
A lot of opposition to the cuts (and have no doubt, they are cuts) will likely come from people who just think that cuts to the military are a bad idea (particularly in time of war), which is a perfectly valid opinion, but the military does not exist in a vacuum, it is an arm of the state and it is no good having a strong military if it comes at the cost of a broken economy. The problem here is that the UK Treasury has a well established history of ignoring strategic necessities and limiting defence spending in such a way as to try and force the armed forces to conduct their missions with less than the necessary resources. So do the cuts actually make sense? Answers are mixed....
( SDR Thoughts )
Conclusions
Some of these concerns are hopefully addressed in the full document, and this is much better than many people had feared (much as it goes against the grain to praise a member of the government the Minister of Defence appears to have fought his corner well). but there is definite cause for concern at the cutting of entire missions and some of what remains is flimsier than it should be, the CVFs and their air group in particular.
