£2 Billion cuts for next year

Next year's MOD budget has been reduced by £2 billion to £36.7 billion. So the question is now what will be cut and how will the MOD cover the shortfall in cash just when it really needs it. The MOD is likely to try and sell off what it can such as the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, which are oil pipelines run by the MOD. More cuts and delays are expected on new equipment thus further increasing the strain on equipment and personnel rapidly wearing out by New Labour's insane policy of trying to fight 2 wars on a peace budget.



A400M could be cut as well as a reduced number of JSF. Though as British engineering jobs could be at risk on both of these programmes that is a tough call. Suffice to say more Type 45s and SSNs are about as likely as Alastair Darling performing the next budget in a pink tutu.

Update : Having downloaded the PDF version of the Budget report one can see (Chapter C Table C11) that the cut in the budget appears worse because of the increase in the budget this year. The estimate for 08/09 is 37.9, budget for 09/10 is 38.7 and 10/11 36.7. So it is still less than 08/09 but not as bad as it first looked. But the military is still seriously underfunded for the commitments being placed on it. However considering the damage made to the British economy by New Labour maybe anything is a blessing at the moment.