Well if you believe the press, some of whom don’t much like Fox’s brashness then there is a big spat between Cameron & Fox anyway.

Fox is pretty powerful in the Tory party though, and is the darling of the right wing back benchers. Whether he gets his way with Gideon remains to be seen, if it moves he wants to cut it!

I am not personally all the right wing, but I do think defence is an area which both previous Governments and the public have underrated in current times and it is nice to see a Secretary of Defence who willing to put his own neck on the line to fight for what he sees is right – another minister would likely accept the cuts and try to spin it as being a good thing.

Still in a couple of months we will all see how true this is.

Assuming the price per plane would be about the same as the price Canada just agreed to pay for 65 F-35 for delivery 2016, LordJim’s upper range suggestion of around 80 F-35B would see a cost of ~$11.077 billion or £7.24 billion based on today’s exchange rate (based on 65 F-35’s costing $9 billion for the planes and ignoring the $7 billion support and maintenance contract as reported in the “Military Aviation News from around the world – V” thread) – does anyone else know is this the sort of money the UK has budgeted for or if the budget for the F-35B is likely to be lower (or higher)?

I swear I have read that the UK anticipated spending £6 billion on its intial purchase of the F-35 but I cannot find the story again – which if it is true would mean the UK would be looking at an initial purchase of around 65 as well.

Just seen this news story – HM Treasury expect the Trident replacement to come from core MoD budget rather than from ring-fenced funds outside the MoD’s budget as been the previous Governments plan’s – if it happens it could have a very large impact on the SDSR.

http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=13517

While I agree that a lot of money could be both saved and generated by buying more generic solutions to our problems instead of a bespoke solution peculiar to the UK – but surely there are times where as an island nation with a restrictive budget does mean that we need something with a specification that we cannot buy of the shelf – the Type-45’s jump’s to mind but I sure there would be others.

UK can have the Naval LCA. With BAE helping out HAL on radar, avionics and other things the thing may actually see service in time. But then again even the IN wants the F 35 for its future carriers.

:confused: UK version of the LCA (N) sound like a bad plan not because there is anything wrong with the LCA (N) but more due to the fact that the LCA (N) is as far as I understand a reasonably priced replacement for Indian Sea Harriers and surely the CVF are meant for power projection which needs a very different plane to something designed to replace Sea Harriers. Plus you can guarantee if the UK purchased Naval LCA it would insist on its own version with a different engine, radar and avionics, want at the very least to assemble it in the UK which will result in a much higher price that will likely for the number purchased be close to the F-35B without the performance of the F-35B. :confused:

With regard to cancelling the F-35B there is no concrete evidence, however the programme is under scrutiny and it seems to me this is the make or break point for the F-35 programme and it is still possible given what is happened in the past that F-35B could be cancelled in a re-structuring of the F-35 programme to get the development costs back on track – unlikely I know but not impossible as of yet.

With regard to Typhoon procurement the only evidence I have is this:

BAE not betting on Typhoon order

BAE Systems is not expecting the Ministry of Defence to order the final set of Typhoon fighter jets for the RAF, but manufacturing jobs will be protected by export orders, said Ian King, chief executive.

Full Story

sorry to disappoint you gloom but the long leads for Astute 7 have been ordered indicating it will be ordered. This are only plans we have many many of these some they do other they don’t. Reducing the deterrent is unlikely Fox has made some interesting comments from Chateem house http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jameskirkup/100047163/liam-fox-sometimes-you-have-to-fight-for-peace/
I’ve just come back from Chatham House, where Liam Fox has been outlining his thinking on British defence. In a nutshell, he says we have to have the means and the willingness to deploy serious military power in order to deter potential threats to the realm. (I’ll try to get a link to the full text soon.)

(Snipped by nocutstoRAF)

Full text of Liam Fox’s speech here – seems to be pushing for martime power projection and increased ability to deliver special forces in-country IMHO

http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/16977_130710fox.pdf