The UK has launched a new Strategic Defence Review and within a week there is a political ‘scandal’ as Ministers fail to rule out scrapping the RAF’s next generation fighter aircraft known as Tempest. The first issue though is that much of this genuinely interesting insight has been passed by in order to focus on the future of Tempest (Known as the Global Combat Air Programme). It is a massive project and one that will be central to the future of the UK’s combat aircraft programme for decades to come. In the case of GCAP it makes complete sense that no one has formally committed to it in Government yet. It is notable that the speeches contain barely concealed messages to the Army to play the game and not disrupt the process.