Defence review: 'Strike brigades' to be created by 2025

The Ministry of Defence is seemingly incapable of procuring equipment that does what it is supposed to do at the price that was supposed to be paid

The forces aren't helped by politicians who constantly change their minds over what they want, the carriers betting a case in point. Designed as one thing, reconsidered for another - which would mean an entirely different choice of aircraft to go on them - and then ultimately go back to the first type.

Beyond that is the simple fact that equipment these days is massively complicated. Long gone are the days where rolls Royce makes a whacking great engine and Hawker straps it to a wood and cloth frame, adds a couple of guns and makes it fly at 400mph in less than a year.
Now we have to get something that has every bell and whistle ever, suits every need, including the ones 30 years from now (how's your crystal ball?) and also has enough British-made components to ensure we get our money's worth further down the line.
All of that combined means we now look at 20 year lead in time for a new aircraft when costs inevitably spiral.

I agThe only one available is the F35B, assuming it does come to fruition, and if it does it will be at eye watering costs and none of our allies air forces can use them so no interoperability.

Whoever you copied all that from needs to do their research. The B variant is going to be used by the USMarines, with whom we'll train and be able to embark with, indeed, we may host their squadrons on our carriers. It won't be massively different to the A variant which will be used by numerous other air forces around the world.

It's not wrong? The ships will carry the STOVL version, the F-35B. The only allies that would be able to land on our ships are the US Marines - other allies have the F35c version, and since the carriers don't have cats and traps, they wont be able to land on our carriers. They abandoned the completion of Prince of Wales to a CATOBAR configuration, so F35c wont be able to take off.

The norm is Equipment delivered late, failing to meet performance specifications and grossly over budget.

Any business that signed a legal contract with another business that guaranteed a price for a certain product, but was then told years later that it was late and would cost twice the amount of the original cost, would quite rightly take them to court. But because the MoD depends so much on BAE, it cannot afford to lose the special relationship it has with the company, so won't even dare to. Especially since it is the only capable ship builder left on these islands because the bright sparks of the previous generations thought globalisation and de-industrialization was a great idea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34897076

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/12010688/David-Cameron-announces-5000-strong-strike-brigades-to-take-the-fight-to-terrorists.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/12010788/David-Cameron-We-will-defeat-terrorism-and-the-poisonous-ideology-that-fuels-it.html

What do people think?


I agree with Maria Eagle. The UK cannot afford another Defence Review like the last one. The morale of our armed forces has plummeted on David Cameron's watch. Our Armed Forces capability and effectiveness has been cut by nearly a third under his leadership.In reality, the 2 per cent of GDP commitment means little. Why? The Ministry of Defence is seemingly incapable of procuring equipment that does what it is supposed to do at the price that was supposed to be paid—such as the F35, whose costs have more than doubled (now £154m per plane), and whose arrival is four years late to go onto aircraft carriers that have cost twice the original estimations—there is little to suggest that the 2 per cent GDP will have any effect on sustaining existing levels of manpower, equipment and capability.


Just like the 2010 SDSR, the 2 per cent GDP target tells us that the government is again fixating on an arbitrary objective as a means of measuring defence spending for the simple reason that it becomes the objective of defence policy.


http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/11/uk-cannot-afford-another-defence-review-last-one