I’m.sure they are.
Is it more than they cost? I dont know.
If it’s not.
Charitable status them.
Either that or defund something else in the Govt bill.
Easy to cull military spending as the public dont understand and dont see it in use.
It is concerning if I’m honest.
Each time there is a review we just cut cut cut.
I used to think that until I saw them reporting on work I was doing and seeing flat out lies rather than just spin.
I’d put money that you could apply that to every media outlet (except, probably, the BBC) to some extent
I rather agree with the BBMF. Perhaps it would even be able to access more resources outside the military. Or move to a less sensitive location where there’s better public access.
But I doubt any savings would be ploughed back into front line units.
I was told that Al Jazeera news is often the least biased
Actually, I’ve heard this too
I’ve heard good things about Al J too. I sometimes read articles in New York Times and Le Monde to provide a non-UK viewpoint. Every source has it’s bias and flaws though of course.
i can see fewer aircraft being an easy pill to swallow.
I was at a “future of the RAF” talk sometime before the pandemic and the one of the speakers (Senior RAF officer) indicated that it would be a brave political that stepped forward and scrapped the Red Arrows - their name would be mud in the public eyes and there would be an instant petition to sign.
i could well imagine if it happened, the individual who permitted it would be as popular nationally in the publics eyes as a certain John Middleton is in CFAV eyes…
this would be interesting…we had a list 30-40 long across the whole MOD in 2018/19 of sites which would be closing by 2025.
interesting to have even more added to that list before we’ve finished the first lot!
in a separate talk i went to (where the BBMF was the topic) the speaker indicated that the BBMF were considering looking at increasing the fleet to include a Tornado and maintaining one in flying condition. although would need a different name as the BBMF title would no longer be relevant
and that of the Historical Army Aircraft Flight…
but yes i can see the BBMF becoming a charity more than I can see it operating a Tornado
i would be surprised if it the Red Arrows were able to raise more than it cost - based on this FOI looking request which has some interesting information (include the £194k raised in sponsorship and discussion about making it a charity) indicates that the budget for a year is £9.1million in 2015
It’s quite often the primary English-speaking TV news channel in many hotels I visit around the world. I have to say that I agree, their reporting generally seems factually-based without significant detectable bias.
it just occurred to me
if this due out on 15th - that is a full week before the 2FTS survey closes on 22nd March…
now it has been suggested this review will be top level but may be interesting what it may contain and what we CFAVs can pick out to then add to survey answers…
My understanding is the detailed work from Chief of Defence Staff comes out on the 22bd tho, so we might need to be quick readers!
What people forget is that, aside from about a 6 month period post Op Granby, we have been on constant Combat Ops for 30 years, and we haven’t funded those Ops correctly.
During that time we also had 3 major ‘Slash and Burn’ Defence reviews by the Tories - ‘Options for Change’ 1990, ‘Front Line First’ 1994, and SDSR 2010.
Expect more of the same.
Very fair point. I hope you are wrong, I suspect you are right.
We do seem to achieve lower capabilities with more spending than some of our peers. France in particular seems to get more bang for their Euro, and they’ve been tied up in the long running conflict in the Sahal.
Speculation, but do other countries sub out massive contracts or just do things in house?
I’m all for private sector involvement if it equates to a cost saving or an improvement in service… But I think there are a few companies that have been on the gravy train for a long time, not providing quality or value for money…
In the right column on a spreadsheet 
Even at work I’m under pressure to allocate time in a certain way so some accountant has a smile, same works done regardless except efficiency ends up reduced
It’s also whether the capabilities are comparable.
Does a military cook do more than just cook? Yes. Can you compare a military cook’s pay and overheads with a contractor’s per capita bid to run a service and say it’s more expensive ? Certainly. But that service person is not just deployable but more able to train for other roles (MT, medic) as well as more likely to run a station commander’s BBQ or even cook for tired cadets on a Friday at camp.
We may have lost sight of value rather than cost somewhere.
Another quick bit of research suggests we have 8,200 full time medical staff across the services, the Bundeswehr has 20,000. Many of whom have been helping the Covid response (yes so have ours but it’s a numbers game). I recall reading that the BW has kept at least some of its hospitals, our services are now largely co located with the NHS. There are pluses to that but does cut that surge capacity.
Afaik, our defence budget still has to provide for pensions of all ex-serving. A number of other countries don’t place this burden on the armed forces, freeing up huge parts of the budget.
Ah, that is interesting. And that would go back to when the forces were much larger than they are today.
The nuclear deterrent was also moved into the main budget (I think after SDR 2010?)
One of the huge problems we suffer from is the legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan - there was a period from 2001 to about 2015 where, apart from a few examples, if something didn’t get used in Afghanistan, or was good enough to use there, it didn’t get any spend/upgrades, and is now obsolete through neglect.
The AWACS fleet being the obvious example.
The Army faces the problem that by 2025, a full 80% of its armoured vehicles will be 30+ years old. Some of the 105mm light guns were used in the Falklands, and many of the FV432 variants are from the 60’s and 70’s - shockingly, they require a huge mantainance effort to keep them going…
Chickens, coming home to roost…
Playing devils advocate for the moment, why does the military need to provide a surge capacity?
You could argue that it should be the other way round - maintain a larger NHS, employing reservists on regular wards, with the ability to crash out field hospitals and mert teams should something kick off.