Shifting Focus A Radical Review?

摘要

Today's landscape of the UK armed forces is dramatically different than it was 15 years ago. In that time, the British Army, Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN) have arguably suffered. Multiple defence reviews, have forced a raft of personnel and equipment cuts to save money and shift the posture of the armed forces towards a more modern era. An example of this would be the widely discussed 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), which marked a controversial end for the UK's Joint Harrier Force and the RAF's fleet of Hawker Siddeley Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft. While the maritime patrol variant of the platform - the Nimrod MR2 - was retired shortly before the review's publication, the 2010 SDSR cancelled its planned replacement, the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 - ultimately leaving the UK without a maritime patrol capability until April 2020.