ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an amendment to David Greenwood’s paper ‘Defence Programme Options to 1980–1’ which is based on a programme budgeting approach. Advocates of the capacity approach argue that defence spending is determined principally by the need to sustain the productive capacity of the arms industry. If indeed that were true, it would be an irrational way for a country to determine its defence policy, since requirements would be falsely determined by the supply of weapons. The programme budgeting approach, however, does provide such a framework, for policy goals are articulated into programme expenditures. The chapter argues, at the meeting that considered David Greenwood’s paper, that to include the phasing out of the Polaris fleet in all the programme options overly restricts political choice. The arguments for keeping the fleet are numerous but not all of equal weight.
