The weapons systems on the chopping block are:
• The Royal Navy’s two amphibious assault ships, HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark. They will be taken out of service at the end of the year - around a decade early in a blow to the ability of the Royal Marines to launch land assaults from the sea.
• A fleet of 17 Royal Air Force Puma helicopters, as well as 14 of the military’s oldest Chinook helicopters
• A fleet of 47 Watchkeeper drones - each worth about £5m - barely six years since they entered into service
• HMS Northumberland, a Type 23 frigate, which is in need of costly repairs and has already operated well beyond an 18-year out-of-service date
• Two large Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships, RFA Wave Knight and RFA Wave Ruler - vessels which carry fuel and supplies to enable the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers to operate around the world.
Oof.
so we are keeping 6 Pumas?
This is a massive reduction in capability - but can we get a Watchkeeper drone to use on squadron @Hercules
Hopefully they’ll go to Ukraine.
Scrap, as in throw away? Can they throw some of that stuff in our direction?
Then they would still be paying for it, just from a different pot 
It seems like a big reduction in capability for a fairly small sum on an annualised basis.
Also odd timing with the SDR coming up, is there something else in the pipeline perhaps?
Not too bad if it is to free up more cash to invest in new kit
Pumas and older Chinooks are knackered.
RFA and RN have no sailors to crew the ships
And the army has scrapped plenty of watchkeeper themselves through bad airmanship…
Watchkeeper - the Army did have a habit of throwing them into the ground… 
Not the most capable of drones (only got an electro-optical/infrared sensor?) compared to more modern ones & the required operating infrastructure seemed to be a bit of a burden?
When was the last time the marines assaulted a coast line that wasn’t Devon or Dorset?
Sure I’ve seen somewhere that the marines are re-positioning themselves as a ‘raider force’ small lightly armed/armoured river patrol-y types. So less need for the full on beach assault type platforms. Whether or not this is just because we can’t afford to employ/train/maintain enough marines and sailors to make a beach assault successful is probably a moot point by now.
I was thinking about this - is the uk needed to do a large scale beach assault where would it likely be?
Russia only has a narrow front of coast
China is on the other side of the planet.
Falklands is heavily defended & the coastal defences if South America are not.
So Mediterranean really & then likely only Israel, Lebanon or Gaza.
If we sell Albion to say the Australians they would likely make better use of it.
Al Faw?
I believe it was 2002.
On a more serious note…
Whilst some of these decision do make sense (HMS Albion was formerly planned to be cut back in 2017, for example) I do wonder how such a large chop of the axe in one go would be viewed by Britain’s adversaries?
Putin probably feels rather content right now, and that he could just grind us down economically if he wanted to.
If he wants to get into an economic battle there will only ever be one winner: Russia’s economy is about the size of Spain’s.
WKPR is probably too obsolete for UKR.
I hadn’t really heard of them before to day to be honest. Since found out they apparently don’t really work in the rain… Seems like a fatal flaw 
It’s not necessarily about what money you have, but what you have in which pots.
Russia has clearly geared up towards a total war footing already, meaning a greater proportion of their available funds can be used for conflict more easily.
The UK is nowhere near approaching such a position, and a move towards such a footing would likely cause significant economic shocks through the reallocation of funds from areas we currently deem to be essential.
The (old and knackered) chinooks are being scrapped on a one for one basis with replacement brand new airframes, so no loss there.
The (50 year old and knackered) Pumas are being scrapped and replaced with EC145 helicopters in the short term, until the MOD pulls its finger out and sorts out the mess it has made of the New Medium Helicopter contract. So no real loss there either.
So £0.5bn over 5 years - and it says up to.
£100m a year.
That is not a huge saving.
It’s a rounding error in the NHS or social security budgets.
Unless they were looking to have to spend even more to maintain the capabilities and it would have been throwing good money after bad?