Oceans OSD was due to be 2018 since, err… she entered service in 1998.
HMS QE will enter service - albeit in a ‘toe in the water’ styleee in 2018, she will be the helicopter carrier, and in order to man QE, they need the crew from Ocean.
Quelle surprise!
Spending lots of money on something and then binning / closing / selling it. I bet a trawl through a number of businesses and govt depts. you will find massive capital spending on something and within 2 years they’ve got it off of their books.
This is SDR is a political knee jerk to appease the joe public given the changes in circumstances in the world. The reductions in RAF, Army and RN in terms of personnel won’t be redressed as they have no where to put them. The timescales for this ‘2025’ means ample opportunity for MOD procrastination, creep, lag and changes to policy. This should have had a timescale of no more than 2 years so that one team could be put in charge of it and retain focus and direction. What will happen is senior officers will be posted on and off the team which will result in a typical MOD project.
What we really need is greater emphasis on police, unless we are going to go into a semi martial state with the Army being deployed to do police work.