Coalition cuts: an uncertain future for defence

The Sunday Times splash today sounds like another senior army figure has been briefing. There never was much of a chance of cutting back the troop numbers drastically while the army was being deployed in Afghanistan.

We know David Cameron’s projected dates for draw-down so the question still remains what will the army look like after that?  In the end, serious cuts over time will involve cuts in the numbers of troops. It will be interesting to see when the defence review comes out how much this is implied, sketched or skirted.
  
The Lib Dems look certain to get the Trident delayed decision sweetie that’s been in play for the last few weeks. There is no question now, I understand, that the building contract decisions start on time.

There will be lots of design work done before the general election booked in for 2015, but the welding and pipes stuff comes later now. That means that the reliability of Continuous At Sea Deterrence becomes, well, less reliable. How unreliable is the multi billion pound question. 

All this is primarily driven by cost-cutting and the deficit reduction, the primary purpose of the coalition. But it can only help with managing relations within the coalition.

Nothing ready to announce here at Liverpool though so it can’t yet go in the trophy cabinet that Nick Clegg insists he isn’t building for Lib Dem coalition prizes.