England's Own Defense Policy Review

While the US QDR is in full swing, a private think-tank in the UK is asking many of the same types of questions, focusing on budget.

Confirming Britain’s commitment to two expensive aircraft carriers and the Joint Strike Fighters designed to fly from them pre-empts the Strategic Defence Review, which is meant to question whether such kit is necessary.

General Sir David Richards, the Chief of the General Staff, has warned that we get more “bang from our buck from soldiers that can fight one moment and help others the next than from exotic capability rendered irrelevant by advances in technology or ignored by those that fight on a different plane”.

Analysts had hoped that the review would provide an opportunity to re-examine the affordability and usefulness of all the big-ticket items on the Ministry of Defence’s overspent procurement programme.

But Gordon Brown’s plan to single out the 65,000-tonne carriers and the jets — projects that are already running years behind schedule — for protection, subtracts two key areas that could have been cut to enable the military to adapt to future conflicts if they were judged irrelevant.

download the PDF of the report here.

There is also criticism that the coziness between government and industry hasn't helped keep budgets in check over the years.

Britain's defence establishment has been accused of a "conspiracy of optimism" to blame for the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) terrible procurement practices.
A report by the Centre for Policy Studies out today says over-ordering and under-costing occur too often because, once the equipment has been purchased, cancellations are rare.
It calls for the opening up of a supply chain of innovators and an increased emphasis on 'off-the-shelf' purchases to break the problem.
The report also attacks the limits of European defence integration. It says restricted spending over coming years, together with the fragmented nature of the defence industry, means the solution does not lie on the continent.
Instead it backs prioritising ensuring service personnel are properly equipped over "local industrial considerations" by learning the lessons of previous failures.
Report author Antonia Cox said: "By implementing these changes, the government can make the political case for prioritising, or at the very least protecting, defence spending.
"It can show not only that the UK should shoulder its share of responsibilities for its own security, but also, through intelligent reform, that it can afford to do so."

By: Brant