Comments on: Round One in the SDSR

By: CM

CM — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:48:17 +0000

Are we at a horse-and-tank moment? or is this the liddell hart moment where combat inexperienced generals/admiral/ACMs sell the forces down the river for the sake of their pet projects? how will you keep combat experienced joint warriors in while managing stove-piped tribal chieftains out? Surely the insitutions cant stifle innovation and talent so thoroughly!

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:00:54 +0000

Roy, it’s a SIPRI figure. Click the link in the blog to go to the wiki entry for it. It’s raw spend, not per capita. If you do it per capita, you get lots of small countries that spend disproportionately large sums.

I’m sure there’s a lot of estimating involved – defence spending is sensitive stuff in lots of places, with much off-budget activity. And in some cases you’re comparing apples and oranges: the PLA, for example, owns shopping centres (malls) – should that be in their budget? Is it?

By: Roy

Roy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:44:43 +0000

“Britain the third largest spend on defense” I have heard and seen this before I would ask how is this figure gained, is it by actual spend, by per capita?

By: Think Defence

Think Defence — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:15:47 +0000

I think one of the reasons there has been so little interest is because it is going to be an exercise in cutting, like all previous reviews that have gone before it.

If one reads the text of any of the previous reviews the language is surprisingly similar but the end result funnily enough tends to be the same.

There is no doubt some serious thinking going on but I am afraid that most of it will be dashed on the rocks of budgetary reality.

By: Daniel D

Daniel D — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:12:10 +0000

Pakistan is the next round?

That is less doubting your analysis but the appetite for anyone to get involved there after Afghanistan goes down.

By: Quintin

Quintin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:03:59 +0000

But the results from Afghanistan have been limited, and the appetite for remaining there, or indeed for undertaking similar operations elsewhere in the near future, is diminishing.

If it was but for appetite, Kenneth… but I fear that the choices are no longer all ours to make. It doesn’t require a piercing intellect to predict how Afghanistan is going to end. And I, for one, am now thinking about how we should prepare ourselves for the next round: Pakistan.

By: Jedibeeftrix

Jedibeeftrix — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:26:02 +0000

The SDSR is certainly starting to heat up now, but it really is too certain to tell what the outcome is as most reporting on the matter bears most resemblance to partisan briefing of worst-case horror stories to tempt some juicy headlines in support of service “x”.

I have followed as many of the relevant think-tank / political inputs into the SDSR process with my “Britain’s future strategic direction” series of articles, but there is doubtless more to come before the SDSR itself is released in autumn:

http://jedibeeftrix.wordpress.com/category/military/