British crew embedded within the Royal Australian Air Force are taking part in Exercise Pitch Black with Australian E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft.

The RAF say here that ahead of the delivery of the first RAF Wedgetail seedcorn Programme has been established with the Royal Australian Air Force which sees RAF maintainers, technicians, and aircrew embedding within 2 Squadron.

“The symbiotic relationship assists the Royal Australian Air Force with the delivery of E-7 capability and will provide a core of experienced personnel to operate UK Wedgetail at RAF Lossiemouth.”

The E-7A, which will be known as the Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning Mk1 in RAF service, provides long-range air surveillance and control of an area of operations.

“It uses a Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) and on-board passive systems to collect information to provide the crew with a real-time picture of aircraft and ships present across a broad area of responsibility. The crew use this information to provide direction and guidance to aircraft and commanders on the ground.”

Flight Lieutenant Gale, Asset Manager, was quoted as saying:

“Seedcorn offers a breadth of opportunities both for the workforce on the Squadron to learn frontline maintenance and technician practices, for the aircrew to practise airborne skills, but also for Engineering Officers such as myself to provide acquisition and sustainment advice and guidance to the Delivery Team back in the UK.”

The RAF add here that Exercise Pitch Black is a major exercise involving 17 nations from across the Indo-Pacific region and from Europe.

“It features a range of realistic and simulated threats which can be found in a modern battle-space environment and is an opportunity to test and improve force integration, utilising one of the largest training airspace areas in the world.”

Tom Dunlop
Tom Dunlop
Tom has spent the last 13 years working in the defence industry, specifically military and commercial shipbuilding. His work has taken him around Europe and the Far East, he is currently based in Scotland.

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89 COMMENTS

  1. These can’t come soon enough!

    There was an Italian G550 AEW over Scotland yesterday. Wonder if its over here on exercise or covering for our capability black hole, ermm gap.

    The Draken trainers from Teesside Airport had been very active at the time as well flying up north over the North Sea.

      • At least it is ordered.

        At least we are training crews.

        But seriously I do have to ask whom you think that we might fight that are so subtle that they cannot be picked up with the assets that we already have?

        Russia – NO
        NK – NO
        Iran – NO
        Argentina – NO
        Tin Pot Dictator XYZ – NO

        I’m starting to run out of options.

        Which only really leaves the Chinese…..and we would never fight them by ourselves. The only way there would ever be a shooting match with the Chinese would be if the Chinese started it by invading somewhere….

        Any Russian kits emits so much EM that you can track it with your vintage Hi Fi, never mind anything specialist. We have all seen the pics of the captured kits: advanced it is not.

        So yes, these 3 units provide icing on the cake for the doing the job optimally and give us a reasonable sovereign capability.

        Do I think Wedgetail would add much to the Ukrainian party: actually I don’t think that between satellite and Rivet as well as EW there is a lot missing from the battle picture. Sure you can always have another set of eyes and ears and it always comes back to: you cannot fool all of the sensors all of the time. So another platform that works slightly differently is always a very big intel and EW bonus.

        • Could do with 3 more saying, part of being in a coalition is to provide some assets to that mission and with what’s ordered we could barely cover the UK let alone provide support elsewhere.

          • More is always better.

            If the budgets are increased as Truss has promised then it will be interesting to see what we get ‘more of’

            I hope Ben Wallace stays in place. I actually believe him when he says something…..I think that also goes for the military community when the going got tough (war) Ben stepped up to the plate.

            I would be inclined to bet that safe programs will go first.

            FSS – everyone agrees that is vital
            3-4 more P8 – low risk and needed for The Bear
            T32 – low risk and needed
            T31 – Mk41 VLS – low risk and needed – game changer in level of frigate
            Long range FIRES – probably bought off the shelf on fixed price
            Stocks of A30 – low risk
            Stocks of Ceptor – low risk

            There is some benefit to announcing material home grown investment.

          • And most of all do it quickly if she does 3% how long is it going to stay up for? Best get the as you put low risk probably easy orders out the gate now than say commit to massive long term investments that will inevitably get cut or repurposed. Also what’s needed is lots more boxers until the army/MOD get it books in order, already being built and would be nice to see the varients utilised like fire support/AD/Artillery. The single best way they can get votes is invest in homemade low risk projects that creates jobs and grows the economy.

          • I don’t want to always be so cynical but

            “If the budgets are increased as Truss has promised then it will be interesting to see what we get ‘more of’”

            I have precisely zero faith this will ever come to pass. I think it’s much more likely that vague policy was just red meat to Tory members

          • I don’t think we will have long to wait to find out.

            Firstly this has been long trailed so there will be a costed MOD wish list.

            I think it depends on which years the increases take place in.

            But I do see commitments to budget lines being filled that T32 as that fits with general policy on drumbeat as well and at least notionally has cross party support!

            The increases this year and next will be relatively modest but I do think that:-

            • the dip after the cash injection will be removed and replaced with a modest increase; and
            • there will be a planned and progressive commitment to a ramp up.

            Some of the stuff I listed out wouldn’t actually be that expensive to purchase and implement so I see it being green light quite fast.

            Let me put it this way once the cash curve is promised, the budget line is filled and the contracts are signed it is more difficult to back out. So there is great benefit to putting forward contract ready proposals.

          • Mate, I wouldn’t be to sure about any increases and some of the safe list you mentioned.
            The army are going to need to purchase/refurbish the vast majority of its heavy/medium vehicle fleet over the next few years, including completely new artillery systems. I know there are some budget lines, and as in the case of C3 contracts have been signed, but its a snail pace at the minute. It’s an awful lot of kit they need, other then 600 or so basic version Boxers not a lot else to talk about!!
            As much as we need a defence increase, recent events will probably hold more sway with our leaders. I think keeping the defence budget at parity over the next few years will be a win.

          • We are in different era now.

            I think we will know for sure in the next couple of days. New administrations announce stuff fast and this was a big pledge of hers.

            I am reading this right Wallace will basically insist on this being announced on Day 1 as his package to stay on.

            What do you do: keep throwing money at Army procurement to throw down the toilet at an alarming rate or do you fund smallish proportionate programs will well known and ascertainable costs?

            Army does need certain things, I am no army expert, such as new tracked artillery, tank upgrade, long range FIRES, battle field AAW and AJAX or son of AJAX like yesterday.

            Problem is army procurement is like funding a black hole. And while RN and RAF seem to be able to buy things as complex as ships and planes quite well ATM, army are unable to buy comparatively simpler bits of kit so effectively.

            Risks talk.

            AJAX is funded: army needs to fix that first.

          • Hi mate,

            I think that you are on the right track with certain ‘safe’ programmes, ie T26/31, F35B second tranche of 24, Centurion for the Typhoons etc.

            I also agree with what you have posted ref the army and its shambolic procurement efforts. However, I think that when push comes to shove MOD will need to prioritise over the next few years, starting with Ajax which we should find out about before Xmas.

            There is no getting away from the fact that essentially the army needs major investment in new equipment, much of it will be expensive.

            One of the biggest and possibly most urgent investment must go to the Royal Artillery, guns, missiles both offensive and defensive (Long/Med range) , new SHORAD and anti uav capabilities this list just goes on and on by itself. I know you get the gist.

            Priorities will shape the future for the armed forces, one can only hope it doesnt come at the expense of the gains made by both the RN and RAF over the last years.

          • The problem with ‘prioritising’ the Army over the RAF and RN would be the message you’d send. The bigger the mess you make the more money you’ll get to clear it up. I don’t think that is a precedent anyone would want to set.

          • David, I wouldn’t disagree with you one bit. However, needs must despite the awful mess the army is in WRT procurement. I can just see priorities taking centre stage given our current plight financially. Like I said, just hope that the other two services suffer due to the armies plight.

          • I’m a Navy nut but I would say the same if they’d got themselves into this kind of mess. We’re going to see an increase in Defence spend whether it’s the already annouced 2.5 or the promised 3% of GNP all 3 services should get their share. The Army will have the chance to do something about all the problems you rightfully identified. Whether they will take that chance will be down to them.

          • I seriously doubt Ben Wallace would have agreed to stay at Defence if it was just an election promise and not a commitment.

          • More the point the economic situation has changed and 3% basically is not going to be affordable.

            If the government are to step in to cover peoples increase in energy we simply do not have the money to pay for an increase in Defence.

            What will be more popular politically and in the eyes of voters? It wont be defence, it will be reducing peoples household bills and somehow trying to keep the NHS functioning.

          • I hope Ben Wallace also stays in place ,however not heard any news on Ajax he must get this sorted out has we are a year on and still no Decision .Plus get the impression most guys on UKDJ think Lizz Truss will increase Defence budget hope so and stop the cuts to 10.000 Troops,but with cost of living and Energy bills this may have to be put on hold.🤔

          • Ffs. There are no cuts to Army. It is what we have.

            Should Army have had any honour, they would’ve given those PIDs over to RN, Royal and RAF – years ago.

            Royal would’ve recruited to the max.
            RN, they need an uplift in pay.
            RAF, no idea. However, with the new forward basing strategy, I would suggest Log Techs, are needed. To say the least

          • I believe Ajax is being reviewed with a decision by Xmas. I suspect a large part of the review is legal experts working out how much of the money the MoD can claw back if it cancels.

          • Perhaps in addition, acceleration of T-26 build schedule, and expedited design study(ies) of SSN(R)? 🤔 Both are AUKUS related (admittedly, an assumption), and would provide international political cover for budget increase.

          • Both very good projects that could and should be speeded up to cost effective/unit speed, (whatever that is). They are big money items but worth it.
            Personally I don’t even think truss has done back of fag pack calculations on budgets yet. Basically she’s going into the job with less than zero money available. So borrow more? She said no tax rises. Cut other dept budgets? She already promised to cut the national insurance rise but not what it was paying for. That 13+ billion a year already spent.
            I’d put a high tax on buying back stock among other things.

          • Uncle Sugar, my pension sponsor, is a mere $31 Trillion in debt! No worries, mate! Or perhaps, don’t worry…be happy! 🤔😳🙄

          • Yeah. Just hope we get old and die before it all comes crashing to a disaster. Sorry kids, it wasn’t me. My parents started borrowing irresponsibly first.

          • Ben Wallace annouced as staying in place. Well done him. He was astute during the leadership campaign never came out for either candidate. Just got on with his job. No fuss no drama. Good man.

          • I’m on the fence about Truss… but it’s a good call on her part that she decided not to change Defence Secretary during a European war.

          • unit price hopefully will come down to enable a further 3-4 aircraft to be ordered if USAF orders 40+ aircraft as predicted

          • The question is, how different will an USAF E-7A be compared to an RAF, or the original RAAF E-7A configuration?

            Yes the UK could wait to order a second batch from a possible future Boeing/USAF production line, but you run the risk of having two differing configurations, which could become a sustainment/future upgrade nightmare.

            Food for thought, hey?

          • Yea indeed the us version will be different.
            The plan was to buy 5 aircraft. The price went up but the budget for the wedge tails didn’t. So that left only 3 able to be bought with the allotted budget.
            5 is probably the needed number. 3 being minimum number.

          • Mate,

            Yes fully aware the original RAF requirement was for five airframes, then cut to three, was it the price went up? Or was it also the UK Government didn’t budget enough contingency in the first place?

            If you look at Defence Capability Plans here in Australia for procurement projects, the budget for those projects are represented as a ‘price range’, for example, you’ll see a budget range allocation of $3b to $5b, the final cost might fall somewhere in between (I’ll also point out this ‘range’ figure doesn’t include ‘Currency Fluctuations’ either).

            If you look at the attached PDF, this shows the planned acquisitions for the RAAF from 2020-2030 and beyond too:

            https://www.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/Factsheet_Air.pdf

            One particular future RAAF project is for the eventual replacement, and expansion, of the current E-7A fleet, the budget allocation ‘range’ is $14b -$21.1b.

            Maybe UK Governments should follow our lead, leave some budgetary wriggle room?

            Anyway, if the UK does find some more dollars (or should I say pounds) for additional E-7A Wedgetails, it would probably be better if they were all the same configuration as the first three.

            Cheers,

          • Thanks Mate,

            So the price by Boeing didn’t go up? The problem was due to changes of exchange rate between the Pound and the USD? Correct?

            Here in Australia, the Federal Government has a policy of “no win, no loss” when it comes to Defence projects.

            It works like this, if a project ends up under budget due to a favourable exchange rate, any ‘underspend’ returns to the General Revenue bucket. This is the ‘no win’.

            If the reverse happens and the exchange rate goes the other way, the Government tops up the short fall from the General Revenue bucket, this of course is the ‘no loss’.

            It’s been a very very long time here in Oz since I’ve heard of a project being cut back due to exchange rate fluctuations.

            Cheers,

        • I’d expect we’d use it for air threat warning and response co-ordination in UK airspace plus participation in overseas operations in conjunction with our allies which is what we’ve always done.

          If your threat assessment is correct then it’s hard to believe that we need the capability. But as we’ve had the capability for many decades and are now investing in replacing it then it’s difficult to see any operational justification for the capability gap.

        • Things could have played out very differently with Ukraine and then we might have had to deal with the Russian aggression into the eartern NATO borders. Then the gap would have been a serious problem.

          If Russia had waited a month for the soil to dry out, it’s entirely possible their attack on the capital would have succeeded and I suspect the ukrainan resistance would have crumbled without the early morale boost of the botched attack / stuck supply trucks.

          • Maybe.

            Ukraine made the fields either side of the main roads wet by blowing up water retaining structures.

            Who knows what would have happened without Operation Orbital and the initial truck loads of NLAWS….once NLAWS was known to work contracting the Ukrainians to knock out Russian armour to prevent other invasions was sensible money.

            I’m sure the Ukrainians were delighted to fire NLAWS and Javelin at Russian armoured vehicles at 90%+ success rates. I’m equally sure that the manufacturers and the sponsoring governments were delighted to prove that the contracts and weapons worked that well.

          • For sure.

            We will never know the ‘what if answer’, but right now its looking like Ukraine might actually win the war.

            NLAW helped early on and now it seems HIMARS attacks on ammo deposits are preventing Russia from being able to use it’s artillery numbers to its advantage.

            The question has to be if Ukraine has enough forces left to capitise on it, as going from defender to attacker will not be easy on them.

      • Fitted For But Not With …. aircrew training pipeline, bombers, airfield defence, enough aircraft, enough bombs and missiles, capacity to sustain operations. What did I miss?

    • It’s been a long time since the RAF had AEW permanently station over the UK so it’s not a capability gap the Italians are filling. I agree it can’t come soon enough. If we are going to buy more of almost anything as well it should be these. The US is desperate for them and it helps build our relationship with Australia. I would really like to see what the UK can achieve in EW capability from them as well. With an AESA radar that big and powerful your practically flying around with a giant MASER.

    • There is existing radar coverage over Scotland and all the UKADR provided by RPs. There are no gaps, and no war ongoing.

      Therefore, any Italian AEW asset over Scotland is not filling in for the RAF.

    • There is exercise Cobra Warrior on at present, based out of RAF Waddington. It involves the German and Italian Airforce,hence the G550.

    • Someone was definitely having a bit of fun judging by the edges of the moustache. Almost wonder if he is related to General Melchet?

        • I had to attend a Courts Marshall at Wellington Barracks. There I was in my best blues when I happened across the GSM. I was rather proud of my black Mexican style upper lip decoration and being typically Air Force got away with it. ‘ ohi you come ere’ ‘ er yes sir I replied’. Now this man was 6 ft plus, slashed peak cap and all I could see was a nose, side burns and cheek fluff immaculately manicured. ‘You shaved this morning soldier?’ ‘ yes sir’ ‘what’s that excuse of a witches broom on yer top lip then?’
          ‘ sir I shall take a leaf out of your good book and remove it right away.’ You hair Force?’ ‘ yes sir’ ‘ and the guardroom allowed you onto my barracks?’

          • Hi Mark,
            Excellent, met a few of those in my time!
            The bane of my life (as a REME Tech) were the SMIGs: Sgt Major Instructor Gunnery, white hats on the ranges, serious attitude, matched only by my own, I have to admit!😎

        • Mate, yes it is pretty bloody impressive, a good Mo must be a requirement for Wedgetail crews!

          What was also impressive from the video, was mention of setting the longest Wedgetail mission up to that date, 17.1hrs, I believe it went up to 17.3hrs.

          From what I’ve read, during the six years operating over Iraq and Syria (Operation Okra) all six RAAF Wedgetail were rotated, and performed more than 550 missions and over 6900 flying hours too.

          And rarely broke down too, unlike the USAF E-3 which regularly broke, which was why Wedgetail was so popular with USAF and Coalition commanders.

          Cheers,

          • The joys of a modern airframe and engines that are fully tested in volume the commercial world where low operating costs and reliability are the watch words.

            That level of testing gives very good statistical insight into component failure life so preventative maintenance can be spot on.

          • Yes the B737NG is certainly a tried and tested airframe, more than 7000 built to date.

            The RAAF also has very good corporate knowledge of B737 operations. There are a total of 22 B737 airframes:

            * 2 x VIP – B737-700NG BBJ
            * 6 x E-7A – B737-700NG
            *14 x P-8A – B737-800NG

            (Note: 12 P-8A are currently in RAAF service, 2 extra are on order/under construction)

          • Hi Klonkie,

            Hope things are well on your side of the ditch?

            Global Hawk?

            The RAAF is not procuring RQ-4 Global Hawk, it is in fact procuring MQ-4C Triton, looks similar, but a completely different animal.

            The last I heard, three are on order and under construction, three (and possibly four), are still to be ordered.

            And yes, Triton will be an impressive capability, they will do all the day to day more boring and simple patrol and recon work, allowing a far better use of the manned P-8A airframes.

            Here’s a good video showing how Triton will be operated in RAAF service:

            https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_O3spdRcEE

          • Thanks John N . All good today- the sun is out and in exactly 2 weeks time I’m winging my way over to Brisbane for a week on the Barrier reef/ Sunshine costs.

            Apologies re the Global Hawk reference- me being lazy in not referencing this correctly as Triton. Very exciting development- thanks for sharing the link

  4. “The symbiotic relationship assists the Royal Australian Air Force with the delivery of E-7 capability and will provide a core of experienced personnel to operate UK Wedgetail at RAF Lossiemouth.”

    I assumed untill now that they were going to be based at Waddington like the Sentry’s before them. However, Lossiemouth does make sense to maintain commonality and interoperability with the Poseidons as well as be positioned to maintain Aerial Early Warning in NATO’s northern Flank.

    • Well someone was thinking in the RAF on this one. Just need to order the next 3 (in with the USAF order me thinks to save a few pounds) to give us some actual assets that can maintain a service over the large UK ADA.

  5. Something about Straya, so far apart, so close and, they are incredibly good people.

    Daughter of Astute, Wedgetail, embedded in RMP in the 90s and naughties. Hope the relationship continues for eternity.

  7. Lets see if Truss is as good as her word and puts defence expenditure upto 3%- in which case surely we can afford the following shopping list:
    Army back up to 82-90,000 troops- add HIMARS and a replacement for AS90.
    Chally 3- entire fleet + add APS trophy to all IFVs and Self propelled artillery units
    Navy: interim anti ship missile, accelerate the development of next generation SSN and try to get either 2-3 more astute class or future SSN into production before end of the decade- putting navy back upto the required 10 SSN level
    Add 2-3 more type 26s back onto the order,
    Purchase 26 more F35B in addition to the already ordered 48 +26 projected to deliver an active fleet of 100 aircraft- which is where we should be
    Order a batch 4 typhoon 24-36 aircraft to allow the batch 1s to be retired
    Tempest- accelerate the programme so looking for IOC around 2030-2032- predicted threat from China is in the early 2030s at current rate of Chinese military development
    Fit mk41 VLS to all RN type 31/ 32 frigates and get adequate missile load out.
    MRSS get it ordered
    FSSS get it ordered
    BMD for type 45s as well as an adequate and viable shore based system
    Wedgetail- we need 7 aircraft not 3- hopefully unit price will come down drastically if USAF order 40+ aircraft as predicted
    3% does deliver an armed forces that would be most capable, blended/ rounded and powerful in Europe. with many capability gaps closed down and more resilience and ability to tolerate attrition loses.

    • The drop of the £ v $ will have an impact on any US purchases particularly if the UK hasn’t a contract in place for a fixed no of assets. So on the face of it the F35 could become more expensive for that reason alone. But this may be mitigated if the MOD have made any forward purchase of $ which they used to do in my day So if I were the RAF I wouldn’t be holding my breath on massive new spend on US equipment no matter how good. Ben Wallace has been asking questions on submarines recently and most but not all of that expense is in the UK so he could go for one or two more Astutes. This would be good for UK technology and employment at Barrow if they could fitted into the build schedule alongside Trident replacement. It might also be good for our relationship with the RAAN and to help counter the growing Chinese Naval threat. As well as that, Ukraine will have influenced thinking that the Army may need a raft of new kit and not Tanks. I can see more Missile defence and anti missiles systems being on the agenda as well as HIMARs which seem to have had a big impact and of course small tactical drones are now the order of the day. On Trident replacement is must be certain it will run over on costs and timescales so some extra funding will almost certainly be needed for that sooner or later. .

      • Hi AB. I’m unsure if there is sufficient dockyard capacity for a restart build on Astute, as they seem committed to the Dreadnought SSBN programme? Would be a grand thing to happen though.

      • Hi A B, well the £ vs $ is still about the $1. 15 cents so it does seem to be holding, god knows how. As for a few more Astutes, I would in general agree with your comments on more subs. However, I think I would prefer if money was spent now on four extra Dreadnought class with the Trident tubes replaced with six Multi Mission Payload modules and an SBS module. Thereby reducing the cruise missile fit to the SSNs so they can go back and do their job of sinking things. As for the cost over runs on the Dreadnought class as far as I am aware the cost plus potential overrun up to about £100 billion has been allocated over the life time of the system. I think the governement has put 10% aside.

        I also agree that the thinking of the British Army might need to change. But at an army level, no but at a combined forces level yes. This does mean an investment into non army levels.

        The British Army hisorically has neve been large, but it has been mobile. One of the comments I think by Adm Fisher was that the largest weapon the RN has is to be able to throw ashore the army anywhere it wants to go. So taking that in mind if we the RN had three Juan Carlos class LHDs each with its air wing and ability to land an armoured battle group (army)escorted by the new 6 ships of the T32 class based either on the Damen Crossover (100 royal marines each) or the Ab-Salon type with 100-150 royal marines we could land an aroured brigade battle group in a first wave on an enemy coast when ever or where ever we want to. If that is then followed up by the new Mutli Role Combat ship capability and the Bay’s we could then have the numbers to make an advancing enemy formation turn to face the new threat. This would mean that the allies would have time to either regroup or launch a counter attack. What will it cost, well the three new LHDs, the six MRCs, six T32s and six battle groups from the army, three heavy eg with MBTs and three light with boxers. The Multi role ships are in planning, the t32 is in planning, the battlegroups would need retraining but are available so if all of these projects get the green light all we need is the three LHDs and extra helicopters/F35Bs, £4 billion should cover that.

        Before someone starts screaming at me, lets ask a good question, does the British Army need 500 MBTs. Would I like to see a rebuilt 1(Br) Corp to the numbers when I was in the Army, yes, do we need to? No, with Poland buying over a 1000 new MBTs they could probably take on Russia on there own. With support from the US, Germany and other mainland European countries Russia would be stupid to try it. Could the armed forces of the UK be of a great deal of use to NATO yes, but by being flexible, moblie and hit the enemy in the side when it is not expeceted. What many have forgotten is this; an enemy must use man power to protect a shoreline if a nation has the abilty to land an effective fighting force. So if I can land in a first wave a reinforced armoured brigade battle group behind an enemies front line I am going to cause lots of problems or the enemy must take lots of front line troops out of battle to protect the coast. Not only that but we could reinforce Norway with major units withing 48 hours, Poland,the Baltic States, Sweden and Finland withing 56 hours, but then we could threaten Russia for example Polyarny with 100 hours. So a potential enemy would need to protect against this threat every where a landing might be possible. For £4 billion investment in equipment above what we are either planing or thinking about is for me a massive return as a potential Russian response would need to be thousands of troops equipment etc everywhere the RN could get to.

        • I agree on the MBT its not where we’re going to offer much to our NATO partners. Seeing Iran flooding drones into Russia, ok quality my be an issue but we’re clearly behind a number of countries. They’ll gain valuable data and experience from operating them in a conflict zone.

      • The £ not been strong for some time so any forward purchase of $ is at best around 1.3 mark still low. Its certainly going to hit defence purchases in $.

    • Wow is that list for a 30% gdp spent on defence! 3% inane going to be lots extra. I think spending just now is 2.1-2.4% or there abouts. Then they will do some fancy accounting by moving something into defence budget in exchange for the increase.
      Inflation running at 10%, energy, fuel bills for forces went up massively. Then if recession comes it will add up to probably nothing.
      Now that is a worse case scenario but we will see

      • No more foreigners in the forces would be her first statement🙈. 5 years in Rwanda after service is up while she decides if your service was valuable enough

      • Geez don’t even joke about that one. Years back we always hoped even assumed almost everyone in Ministerial roles were in safe hands ( or certainly outed if not found so quickly) it’s was just how competent they were above that expectation, now ‘safe hands’ are a struggle to find to fill positions at all, their competence expressed more often than not through targeted pr campaigns. You know like stating we are the fastest growing economy in the G20 a week before it’s reported we will be the slowest (bar Russia) for years to come.

        • Have you noticed how we seem to have one of the fastest growing economies in the immediate past and present but never in the future ? It seems to have started about 6 years ago and still continues to this day. 🤔🤔

        • More Johnson spin I am afraid we had the fasted growth in our economy because we stated from the lowest base at the time.

          I also believe Ben Wallace has his eyes on the NATO Secretary General job when it comes up – hence why he stood aside when the PM slot came up. As a former soldier the NATO job would be far more rewarding than the dog-eat-dog world of the career politicians.

    • The only good news all week.

      He’s kept out of the political fray and made few enemies. And even Dim Liz probably knows that replacing him with some puppet clown wouldn’t end well.

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