Grumpybear
New member
A major form of political interference is the belief of politicians of all parties that the overriding function of defence procurement is the maintenance of jobs in the defence industry. As a result the armed forces get the products made (mostly) by BAE Systems, when they get round to supplying them and at the price BAE choose to charge. our armed forces would have much more bang per buck if we bought the best products available from the people who build them. even worse is buying foreign (usually US) kit but setting up special production lines in the UK for very small production runs e.g. The Apache and the RR engines in the F4K and F4M Phantoms. A cynic might also think that the only overseas customers for our kit are either bribed to take it or get shafted into it as part of the small print of an overseas aid package.
Also, it seems that defence spending (and cuts thereto) is always evenly spread between the three services irrespective of the actual needs of the country. A classic example is the cuts to all thre services imposed by Geoff Hoon to pay the rocketing bills for the Eurofighter. the army made its share even more damaging by cutting infantry when operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were underlining the primacy of infantry, to protect the armour and heavy artillery communities from redundancy or redeployment.
none of the above is any criticism at all of the people on the sharp end for whom I have the greatest respect, but then I did spend 22 years as an engineer officer in the RN.
Also, it seems that defence spending (and cuts thereto) is always evenly spread between the three services irrespective of the actual needs of the country. A classic example is the cuts to all thre services imposed by Geoff Hoon to pay the rocketing bills for the Eurofighter. the army made its share even more damaging by cutting infantry when operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were underlining the primacy of infantry, to protect the armour and heavy artillery communities from redundancy or redeployment.
none of the above is any criticism at all of the people on the sharp end for whom I have the greatest respect, but then I did spend 22 years as an engineer officer in the RN.