Treating every civil-service problem as excessive staffing obscures the Ministry of Defence's loss of specialist posts. Uniformed procurement experts went first because experienced civil servants remained, then civil-service generalization removed many of those specialists as well. Defence procurement requires unusually deep engineering and standards knowledge. Eliminating both groups contributed to later acquisition failures while leaving no leaner equivalent capability.
Notable Point · 3:23:48-3:25:04
How Britain stripped expertise from defence procurement
Britain first removed uniformed procurement specialists and then generalized the civil service, leaving defence acquisition without either pool of expert buyers.