A semi random collection of interesting stuff from this week;
Europe on immigrant spotting UAV’s
Terrorism, Economics, and the London Olympics
G4S and London 2012: Choosing your partners wisely?
Manned aircraft are going to around for a while
Suapacat Provides Rescue Remedy
The big lie of the defence funding ‘black hole’
ISO Container Mobile Data Centre for the US Army
MoD Signs Trident Support Contract
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Boss, somehow this must have passed your eyes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9411840/The-Armed-Forces-have-been-plundered-enough.html
They have some spot on points. My favorite:
“The public is hopefully well aware that the current budget deficit does not arise from overspending on defence, which has fallen in real terms, but results from huge increases in public spending in welfare, health and education which has seen government spending rise from £470 billion (in real terms) in 1998 to £722 billion today.”
We pay a lot of money for a in many parts mediocre NHS. The way to remedy deficiencies was throwing money.
We pay a lot of money for an education system, which comes out completely mediocre in the OECDs PISA-study. The way to remedy deficiencies was throwing more money. (Btw, that a quarter of our kids are jobless is simply a matter of a lack of competitiveness, which is measured by HMG using individual tax rates).
We pay a lot of money for the armed forces. The way to remedy deficiencies was throwing future-investment money at current-messed-up investment.
In each case, because there are a lot of problems to fix and basically no idea or practical experience to draw upon, results remain poor. Who finds a pattern in this, can take it home. I guess, we have a lot more to fix than defence. Anyone, who expects a government of any colour to be able to fix this in just a few years despite big, powerful interest hanging around, is just desperately naive.
Where is the difference? Once again, spot on:
“The further cuts are cynically driven in the knowledge that the Services’ leadership will deliver and do its duty because it always has and always will – unlike any other sector.”
Amen.
P.S. Please consider signing the following e-petition
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/35949
God, some of the comments on the telegraph article by west.. forget Navy-centric, its random hate spewed at West, junior service and bemoaning the loss of SHAR; a collective face-slap to them all.
Admiral Lord West is something we haven’t seen much of in the last hundred years or more: an openly political admiral.
After his military career finished he chose to remain active in a high profile public role, and to affiliate himself with a political party. His previous career and expertise as a serviceman forms the foundation of his current career as a politician. I make no moral judgement about this but it is un-usual today. Some army colonels and majors have made the jump to the House of Commons, but very few top ranking officers from any service take up political careers. The highest military appointments are rightly seen as apolitical and most of the ex-holders of those offices opt to remain that way (at least in public).
The vehement nature of the criticism West receives comes from mixing the high ideals of military service to the country with the tawdry reality of political deal making and compromise. The two sit uncomfortably together and always have done. If you want to understand the spite look at the amount of negative comment the 18th century admirals who were active in politics alongside their service careers attracted. It was considered more normal then and still stirred up some deep emotions.
Hundred years?
… we haven’t quite reached the ’20s, yet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beatty,_1st_Earl_Beatty
well you know i have a lot of time for the k-max and it seems my praise was justified, perhaps if an order is going in we should piggy back it, i’ve said it ten times and i’ll say it again why waste a troop carrier to undersling loads when a k-max can do it, same weight limits for underslung as a merlin.
ps as i type this GB have just put a third past the argies,in the hockey guess that argie captain didn’t do enough hills when he was training on “argentine” soil, the throbber!
pps make that 4, ha ha ha ha ha
I like the “black hole” article.
I especially agree with the need for satellites and the mad spending on turning the wonderful Typhoon into anything other than the worlds best air defence fighter.
Lord West also seems to think 19 escorts is not enough, but fails to mention how many is enough.
Beatty was certainly a contraversial First Sea Lord, although it is dificult to be sure how much of this was down to the legacy of Jutland rather than any overt politicisation. The story about canvassing in uniform is certainly an interesting one although somewhat lacking in detail. Unless Beatty took a full time political job after his RN retirement in 1927 then I don’t think he went as far as West has done.
The fact that both Jellicoe and Beatty’s names were pulled from the KGV (1939) class battleships is suggestive that Jutland was the bigger issue.
Hi PE,
His bullying of the Treasury in planning meetings cost the Navy dear afterwards. I will get you a book reference for the detail… my son has borrowed it, and guess what: teenagers are sleeping at this time of the day
For PE, as per above, pp.335 – 380 in Andrew Lambert’s
ADMIRALS – The naval commanders who made Britain Great
Lord West really should stop playing politics, he is not very good at it! He makes some good points, but denying MOD had serious budget problems flies in the face of all wisdom. (I do not include his querying of the £38bn figure, that can be legitimately challenged) We also don’t live in a world where the UK voter wants to pay more towards defence, just stating that we should spend more ‘just in case’ is a politically naive argument. You have to back up such a statement with good reasoning, he doesn’t have much to go on here.
McZ, thanks for the link.
I had seen it but didn’t put it here because to be honest I thought it was his usual see no, hear no, speak no evil from when he was in the decision making loop. That combined with his usual stance that the RN is perfect but just needs more money and the other services need more but then having a backhand swipe at them, I get bored of it and if I do a post I get accused of being anti navy by all the foil hat wearing ‘we need 300 frigates’ brigade
I must admit though that the £38 billion black hole has acquired almost mythical significance and I do wonder the undoubted budget issue has been overestimated, the worse scenario taken and a bit added for good luck.
As with these things I suspect the actual answer is somewhere between a lot and a fcking lot!
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uk-tornado-fleet-to-retire-in-2019-says-bae-375014/
Phase 3 of the mid life fatigue program must have been cut under sdsr then!
Thanks Mark, just done a quickie post on the BAE mid year report, some interesting snippets in there