Defence budget real-terms increases and cuts

In the wake of the budget today in the UK the various government departments had to spell out how they would save money. The MOD is to made £700 million "efficiency savings" by doing things like using less consultants and better IT. If they say so though some of these savings are a little vague, working in IT as i do i know that just buying new systems does not guarantee you will become more efficient and save money - sometimes the total opposite! The MOD meanwhile claim that the defence budget will have real-terms increases in 2010-11 with several billion earmarked for Afghanistan on top of the defence budget. Though of course they at the same time have to save over a half a billion.

JSF and CVF : an Admiral's dream. A Treasury official's nightmare.

Cheerfully a committee of MPs say the defence budget is facing a black hole of up to £36 billion and major projects may need to be cut. After the election we will just have to see where we stand. The days of gravy are over for awhile though, unless you work for a bank of course.