Britain without the Korean war

[Cjc]

From what I have read both on this forum and on others it seems that british post war procurement plans had been really disrupted by the Korean war, wich leads to the question how would british procurement look without that war. For example I doubt the supermarket spiteful would be procured without the feer generated by the Korean war.

 

[Archibald]

The buzz word is "superpriority" : a quick search across this very forum brings interesting results.
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/search/1574218/?q=superpriority&o=relevance

My understanding is, it should have been called "superpanicky" instead: the said panic rearmement did a lot of damage, notably to the Navy and RAF.

Post WWII UK was ruined, so military money was scarce. Next, WWII surpluses had to be digested (think of the Illustrious carrier extended family of six ships to be rebuilt... except it became a nightmare are too many of them were differents).

This often impacted clean sheet military projects, always more expensive because new technologies. Which progressed at breakneck pace in the 1950's, adding further chaos and waste.

And then, the Korean war's superpriority played havoc with all the above. Because of the panic, there was less time and money for new programs: the Korean emergency dictated recycling WWII surplus instead. Such as plentiful Majestic / Colossus carriers with piston-engine fighters on their decks. Rather than 1952 carriers with Sea Vixens...