Time has even been spent inside the Ministry of Defence (MoD) quibbling over the name of a new organisation charged with procuring billions of pounds worth of weapons - despite war gripping both the Middle East and Ukraine, and Donald Trump mocking British military weakness.
Two sources said some people would like to rename the newly established National Armaments Director Group, or NAD Group, as the Royal Armaments Directorate.
One of the sources claimed this was in part because the abbreviation "NAD" also means testicle - an unfortunate source of amusement. The other source said it was because the word "royal" would engender a greater sense of pride.
"If they're worried about that, then something has gone so badly wrong," said Air Marshal Ed Stringer, a former senior officer who was involved initially with helping John Healey craft his "defence reform" initiative.
The MoD signalled there is no plan to change the name.
In another example of teething problems, an attempt to inform by email around 27,000 defence staff late last month about who they will report to within the NAD Group had to be paused after the initial batch of notifications went out.
This was because of inaccuracies in the information.
An investigation was launched to find out what went wrong.
Emails with the correct details about reporting structures have yet to be issued even though the NAD Group became fully operational on 1 April.
"The formation of the NAD Group has turned into a fiasco," one of the defence sources said, sharing their views on condition of anonymity.
There is "lots of ill feeling among the civil servants. No one has confidence any of this is working. Lots of workshops happening - little meaningful action".
Compounding the sense of dysfunction is a failure by the MoD to publish a long-promised plan for what equipment - from warships, tanks and jets to drones, satellites and other emerging technology - the department will buy over the next 10 years.
The Defence Investment Plan should have been released last autumn following the publication of a Strategic Defence Review, which set out the UK's military ambitions.
A Whitehall source said it might be out in June but there is no guarantee.
The delay is understood to be largely because of the need for more money to be made available faster by the Treasury.
If that is not granted, then difficult choices on cutting programmes will have to be taken - even as Sir Keir Starmer says the military is moving to a war footing.
"There is a gap of billions of pounds just to deliver the programme of record," a defence industry source with knowledge of deliberations at the MoD said.
"It is so broken inside."
An MoD spokesperson strongly rejected what they called "incorrect" criticism of Mr Healey's reform agenda.
"In an ever-changing world where demands on defence are growing, our reform programme represents the biggest shake-up of UK defence for over 50 years and one of the fastest transformation programmes in government," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Mr Healey made defence reform a priority before he became defence secretary in July 2024, saying it was vital to fix structural problems and "create a stronger defence centre, capable of leading Britain in meeting the increasing threats we must face".
His vision was to establish a Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ) under the chief of the defence staff, charged with deciding - in an integrated way - the strategy for how the army, navy and air force would fight and what kind of capabilities they would need.
These "demand signals" would then be passed to another of his key creations - the NAD Group - which would go to industry to find the right weapons and put them under contract.
The NAD Group is meant to be an influential, strategic body that oversees the procurement and through-life support of military kit as well as forging closer ties with industry, encouraging innovation and supporting exports.
It sits above Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) - which is the procurement arm of the MoD - as well as other areas such as Defence Digital and Defence Science and Technology Laboratories.
On paper, this whole model is a change from a previous structure - which itself was the product of yet another revamp back in 2011 - that had given the heads of the navy, army and RAF the ability to spend their own budgets on the equipment they thought they required.
However, during that period - and over prior decades - programmes to buy equipment were often delayed because of onerous contracting procedures and modifications to the order.
There was also the impact of repeated budget squeezes, which would force a project to be slowed down to save money in-year - while pushing up total costs over time.
As a result, despite having one of the largest defence budgets in the world at more than £60bn a year and rising, the Royal Navy is still struggling to deploy a single warship and attack submarine, the army could not muster a credible division of 10,000-20,000 troops for any meaningful length of time and the RAF lacks sufficient pilots, jets and munitions to sustain a high intensity fight against a peer enemy that lasts longer than a few days.
"It is a mess," a serving military officer said, speaking anonymously.
Procurement minister Luke Pollard is understood to be planning a review to "stop stupid rules" across defence in a sign of the moves that are under way to change a culture of risk aversion and bureaucracy - though nothing seems to be happening very quickly.
Multiple defence sources said Mr Healey and his team have instead struggled to make their reforms significantly transform defence's output in almost two years of trying - an effort that is thought to have cost some £20m in consultancy fees.
That is on top of tens of millions of pounds that were already spent under the previous government on a now-abandoned attempt to achieve the same objective of improving how the MoD functions and to accelerate the procurement of weapons.
"The mood is dreadful," the defence source said.
"Within the groups that make up the NAD Group there is just a sense of paralysis."
The source said many of the senior officials who had presided over the old way of working that the defence secretary had wanted to scrap have now been tasked with implementing his reforms - just under different job titles and working within new structures.
"So the people who have been entrusted to reform are the ones who have presided over disastrous, slow and bureaucratic procurement for decades," the source said.
A defence industry source, also speaking anonymously, agreed, saying: "It is reform theatrics. We have the same people in similar jobs just under a different label."
Ken McNaught, a defence acquisition specialist and systems engineer, has tracked similar attempts to reform defence procurement since 1961.
"Nothing will change until they change the culture - and the super tanker is not for turning," he said.
Offering a sense of the slow pace of reform, the pivotal role of national armaments director, who heads the NAD Group, was only appointed last September - more than a year after Mr Healey took charge and despite the importance he had personally placed on transformation.
After a lengthy recruitment process, the government appointed a former corporate lawyer with a background in venture capitalism called Rupert Pearce to the top job. He once ran the satellite communications firm Inmarsat but has not led a defence company.
"He's been dealt a bad hand," the defence source said.
"He seems a smart guy but he's yet to prove he can make things happen in the civil service and MoD. There is good talk but little action."
Defence ministers continue to champion their reforms.
The MoD spokesperson said: "Our increased defence spending is being matched by sustained and serious reform, which is already producing results.
"This includes clearer accountability at every level within the department, ensuring that defence delivers for the British people, a new national armaments director, who is fixing procurement and driving growth, and senior leadership who are cutting waste, reducing duplication and ensuring that we are buying better for what our front-line forces need."
Ministers also insist that the delay in the publication of the investment plan has not stopped the NAD Group from issuing contracts for warfighting kit such as drones and helicopters.
Yet the mood within much of the defence industry is described by insiders as "bleak", with order books empty as companies wait for work from Mr Pearce and his contracting team.
"I am twiddling my thumbs trying to find something to do and trying to justify my existence," said one defence industry employee.
"I half expect to lose my job. We keep on being told the money is coming, but until it does, then it is not there and we can't get to work."
Some firms are even at risk of going bust or being forced to move overseas. Germany and the US are investing far more decisively in defence than the UK.
Fred Sugden is associate director, defence and national security, at techUK, the main trade association for the UK technology industry, which includes defence companies.
"Whatever the challenges are, and we understand there are challenges around government spending at the moment, now is not the time to be delaying," he said, referring to the publication of the defence investment plan.
"We're going to potentially lose good UK companies to other nations and ultimately we can lose military capabilities because they're underpinned by defence industry. If you haven't got a defence industry, then you haven't got military capabilities that you might need to deploy."
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A number of military officers and defence officials cautioned that taxpayer money risks again being spent badly unless the MoD is forced to function better.
A commander, speaking anonymously, said: "If you lifted defence spending to 5% of GDP tomorrow [up from around 2.3% now], you would not see a step change in output."
It is why Mr Healey's desire to reform the MoD made sense to Air Marshal Stringer and to others who Sky News has spoken to who have knowledge of the reform programme.
But they said that is only true if the change is properly implemented, which involves much more than altering job titles and workflows.
They said it requires a transformation of the culture inside the department to be more agile, dynamic and bold - as already happens when the MoD procures weapons for Ukraine.
Asked what the risk is if the MoD fails to become better at procuring the right weapons at speed and scale for the armed forces, Air Marshal Stringer said: "You're going to the next war with the old stuff, and you'll suddenly find that you can't dictate the terms of the conflict because the enemy gets a vote. And you'll find, pretty quickly on, you're taking casualties."
Sky News is the official media partner of the London Defence Conference 2026. Later this year Sky News will launch a new defence & security app, bringing together video-first reporting from our leading journalists and experts.
The Ukrainian leader said earlier this week that he had proposed the move via the US.
There was no immediate response - but on Thursday President Putin agreed to a temporary truce from 4pm on Saturday until the end of Sunday.
A Kremlin statement said hostilities would pause "in all directions" but "troops are to be prepared to counter any possible provocations by the enemy".
"We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow the example of the Russian Federation," it added.
President Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app that Ukraine would "act accordingly" and honour the deal.
"People need an Easter without threats and a real move towards peace, and Russia has a chance not to return to attacks even after Easter," he said.
Orthodox Christianity, which follows the older Julian calendar, is the main religion in both countries and this year Easter falls on 12 April.
Russia unilaterally declared a ceasefire last Easter, but both sides accused each other of breaking it - while a permanent end to the war, now in its fifth year, remains elusive.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agency TASS this weekend's temporary ceasefire didn't mean peace talks were about to resume.
Russia continues regular aerial attacks on Ukraine's cities and energy infrastructure and the frontline in the east is at a virtual standstill due to the constant threat of drone attacks.
US-led talks over the past year or so have made no meaningful progress on key issues, such as the land in the Donbas region coveted by Russia under a permanent truce.
For now, the focus of Western leaders is also on resolving the fighting in the Middle East.
President Zelenskyy said his country faced a tough few months while the US concentrates its efforts elsewhere.
"This spring-summer period will be quite difficult politically and diplomatically. There may be pressure on Ukraine," he said in comments released by his office on Friday.
"There will also be pressure on the battlefield," he added. "I believe it will be very difficult for us until September."
Mr Zelenskyy said he hoped the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war would mean US sanctions on Russian oil - paused temporarily to help global supplies - would be reinstated.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian energy facilities in recent weeks to try to limit the Kremlin's sudden windfall from increased oil sales.
"Russians now have major problems with some of their facilities," said President Zelenskyy. "After any strike on our energy sector, we respond - and that is entirely fair.
"If Russians want this to stop, they must stop their strikes, and then we will act in kind."
Mr Zelenskyy added that Ukraine's partners (he did not name them) had asked him to scale back those attacks.
However, he said if Russia wanted a respite, then trilateral talks on ending the war should resume within the next three months.
She told Sky's Electoral Dysfunction podcast that the Reform UK leader's opposition to the move on free speech grounds is "deplorable", and questioned his commitment to eradicating antisemitism in Britain.
The Home Office announced on Tuesday that the US rapper, who now calls himself Ye, has been denied permission to come to the UK on the grounds that his presence would not be "conducive to the public good".
The decision came after days of outrage that he had been booked to headline the Wireless Festival in July, despite his history of antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements, including a Super Bowl advert directing people to a swastika T-shirt, and a song praising Hitler.
Sir Keir Starmer said West "should never have been invited to headline Wireless", which has now been cancelled, and that the government "stands firmly with the Jewish community, and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism".
"We will always take the action necessary to protect the public and uphold our values," he said.
But Mr Farage took a different position on West's booking, arguing that the rapper should not be penalised for speech.
"I wouldn't buy a ticket, I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a ticket. I think his comments are vile, really vile. The sort of rabbit hole antisemitism, stroke Nazism, that he's gone down is vile," the Reform UK leader said.
"But I think if we start banning people from entering the country because we don't like what they say, I worry where that ends up.
"If Keir Starmer was to ban people coming into Britain, with whose views he doesn't like, almost everybody wouldn't be allowed in. I think it's a dangerous path to go down."
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He added that he would not ban people from the UK "even if I think what they say is thoroughly objectionable, unless, of course, the line's crossed and you see direct incitement of violence".
But Baroness Harman forcefully condemned Mr Farage's position, telling the Electoral Dysfunction podcast: "I think it's so deplorable that Nigel Farage is saying, you know, he's trying to lead a culture war against this.
"I mean, what kind of society does Nigel Farage want us to be living in? Is he really happy for us to be in a society where you have to worry if your kids are going to a Jewish school, about the security around that school, that if you're going to worship at a synagogue, you have to worry about the security of that synagogue.
"You know, these are issues for all of us, not just for the Jewish community."
Reform UK has been contacted for comment.
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While Mr Farage has been a staunch defender of Israel and condemned rising antisemitism in the UK, he has faced accusations that he made racist and antisemitic comments to fellow pupils at school.
He has forcefully defended himself against the claims, saying he "never directly racially abused anybody" at Dulwich College and said there is a "strong political element" to the allegations coming out 49 years later.
Cast your mind back to the early noughties: Eminem is one of the biggest artists in the world, reality stunt show Jackass dominates MTV - and two young skate-punk rappers from America are potentially on the verge of becoming hip-hop's next big thing.
Silibil'n'Brains, aka Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain, had the tunes, the talent and the chutzpah. There was just one problem - they were not actually from Los Angeles, California, as they had told label bosses in the UK, but rather from Dundee, Scotland.
After attempts to make it authentic were dismissed by industry bigwigs in London who made fun of their accents, they reinvented themselves as up-and-coming hip-hop stars from the West Coast - associates of the Eminem-fronted Detroit hip-hop group D12, no less.
Boyd and Bain wanted to stick it to the man. But what started out as a joke turned into an audacious deception so convincing, they ended up with a record deal, TV appearances, and a support slot with... D12.
Their story is now being told on the big screen in California Schemin', the directorial debut of X-Men, Filth and Atonement star James McAvoy.
"I always thought it would be a cool story to tell the grandkids when I'm older," says Boyd. "Like, you're never gonna believe what I did when I was young. But that's as far as I thought it went."
'We were out of our depth'
As Silibil'n'Brains, the pair really had to commit, re-recording the songs they already had with American accents, and remaining in character throughout their time in London.
But as the lies snowballed and the money kept rolling in, the pressure mounted and eventually it became too much.
Now, the pair are being played by Samuel Bottomley (Boyd) and Seamus McLean Ross (Bain) in California Schemin', with McAvoy starring as the record label executive who signs them.
The film is based on Bain's memoir, written a few years after they left their American alter-egos behind. "When the book came out, people were reaching out to me and telling me their own stories," he says. People who had been bullied, "been the underdog... something was hitting home".
Both men, speaking to Sky News on separate Zoom calls, say looking back, and seeing their lives played out on screen, has been surreal.
"We were these young, wild skateboarders, musicians, just living a rock and roll lifestyle that we were so not used to," says Boyd. "We were completely out of our depth."
Bain says they were running scared a lot of the time. "I think you see that in the way Sam and Seamus act it," he says. "But it's about not letting your fear hold you back - it's using it as a kind of booster cannon…
"In some parts in the film, I just go, whoa... my adult brain is like, don't do that. But back then, we didn't really know the depth of it. But you look back and think, actually all of this was kind of perfect because if they didn't make fun of us the way they did, it probably wouldn't have lit a fire under us."
After making the long journey from Dundee to London for an audition, the pair were mocked. "It was traumatic and embarrassing," recalls Bain. "It was a lot of tears on the way home that day. But once that was out the way it was like, they did light a fire."
Supporting D12
Boyd says the American accents started as a prank. "It was almost to entertain ourselves a little bit because we were getting so many rejections, just for having Scottish accents."
When they got their first show as US rappers, the idea was to walk off stage and reveal their true identity, he says. "But we got approached… I think fuelled with adrenaline from the show, it was like, 'we're from California'. It was kind of like, we're at a crossroads now."
Tell the truth or continue the lie. "We went with the latter - and here we are, all these years later, with this crazy story."
One memorable scene in the film comes when the pair arrive at their gig supporting Eminem's group D12, after previously saying they knew the rappers.
"It was the ultimate high to the ultimate low," says Boyd, of being offered the shows. "Like, 'Oh my God, we're going to support D12!' And then, 'Oh my God… it's going to be so awkward'. It was bizarre but we got lucky, we got away with it."
In the film, we see Bain pushing harder to keep up the pretence as Boyd's enthusiasm wanes.
Bain says when he wrote his own book he had the "therapy of writing and seeing what I did wrong" at the time.
"I can actually see in Seamus's performance... I felt angry a lot of the time, angry with the situation. I think a lot of it captures a kind of truth that's almost hard to write."
There is good and bad in both characters in the film, he says, and it's not about blame.
"It's more a case of showing that you can be best friends, but when you're in a situation where you're living as other people, you're gonna get the lines blurred... It was the pressure that drove us against each other."
'We weren't fake rappers'
Something they both say they hated, after their deceit was exposed, was being dubbed "fake rappers".
"That was the biggest issue I had with it all over the years," says Boyd. "We weren't fake rappers. We love hip-hop, we love the culture, and perfecting the craft, we put in hours and hours and hours of dedication.
"We got to the point where we got signed, we got in the door by being these fake Americans, but we got signed because I guess we had the talent."
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The California lie was no desperate attempt to get famous, he adds. "It was us trying to open doors and prove a point that it shouldn't matter where you're from."
He sees their tale as an underdog story. "It shouldn't matter what you look like, what you sound like. If you have the talent, you should be given the opportunities other people have."
Comparisons were made to Milli Vanilli, the 1980s pop duo who didn't sing on their records, says Bain. "But nothing was fake about our talent."
Silibil'n'Brains landed right at the beginning of the digital era. For anyone wanting to try the same trick now, social media would no doubt expose the cracks in the lie. But it might also have led to more authentic opportunities in the first place.
A few years after their hip-hop hoax, MySpace launched artists including Lily Allen and Arctic Monkeys and paved the way for the removal of industry gatekeepers. Traditional geographical constraints have since been dismantled by streaming and the grip on the charts held by English language music has loosened dramatically, as proven by the rise of artists from BTS and Bad Bunny to Rosalia and Kneecap.
Bain isn't convinced things have changed that much.
"Us and [Irish-language rappers] Kneecap have had to have a movie break us to the world," he says. "Where are all the others? Why isn't there a Scots kid really being propelled to the world as a rapper? Because there's a lot of Scottish rappers."
He says he hopes the film will shine more of a spotlight on the talent in Scotland.
"Hip-hop and Scottish to labels, it didn't go together. And I still think there's that prejudice, you know, until someone comes through and has a big record and then it kind of breaks the thinking around it."
But Boyd is more hopeful that things can be different now. "You don't have to be from a certain place anymore, you don't have to fit into this mould that you had to back then."
California Schemin is out in cinemas now
The slump in popularity of a country that is meant to be the other half of Britain's special relationship also came after the US intervention in Venezuela.
Consultancy company Public First found that 53% of Britons questioned said they regarded the US as a "negative force in the world" - a jump of 19 percentage points since before American forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.
Iran war latest - Israel attacks Lebanon
By contrast, just 29% of respondents viewed Washington as a positive force - a drop of 12 percentage points compared with last December.
The figures were gathered for the two-day London Defence Conference, which opens on Friday.
Conference director Iain Martin said: "The British public has dramatically shifted in attitudes towards the US after the war in Iran".
"That represents a profound challenge to the transatlantic alliance with potentially serious implications for the special relationship.
"These poll numbers emphasise the need to strengthen British and allied defences in the face of growing threats and global instability."
The survey, which quizzed just over 2,000 adults in the UK, found that an overwhelming majority - 85% - believed that the world was becoming more dangerous, with 60% saying it felt the most unstable in their lifetime.
Mr Trump's foreign policy was widely seen as escalating risk, with 64% of respondents saying that his approach makes a global conflict more likely.
On the war in Iran, just 26% were in favour of the US and Israeli military action, while 41% were against.
Roughly half (49%) of the public thought Sir Keir Starmer's involvement in the crisis was broadly correct, with 48% saying he should refuse to offer help if asked directly by Washington.
However, that ratio would change if Iran were to hit British military targets in the region.
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Should that happen, 59% of those asked said they would support UK involvement.
As for unblocking the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic, if the UK had the best chance of reopening oil trade in the region, some 47% of Britons said the military should be deployed compared with 31% who preferred that it stays away.
With wariness about the United States growing, the poll found a growth in support for greater European cooperation. This included 38% of people saying they would prioritise strengthening ties with European countries, compared with just 19% favouring the US.
Sky News is the official media partner of the London Defence Conference 2026. Later this year Sky News will launch a new defence & security app, bringing together video-first reporting from our leading journalists and experts.