The paper suggested that the companies join forces to rationalise their operations for a future in which there would be smaller numbers of military projects.
Only the Navy was left significantly unchanged, although it refocussed on force projection rather than all-out battle with a Soviet fleet.
The massive superiority of the western air forces meant this battle would be short and largely one-sided, but the UK would have to survive at least one wave of Soviet attacks.
The defensive weapons of the system included new jet-powered interceptor aircraft and, originally, reorganised anti-aircraft artillery with new tactical control radars.
Split into classes based on their range, much of the attention internationally was on the longest-ranged intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
However, short-range missiles were both less expensive and easier to develop, and these had the performance needed to deliver a warhead to the UK from bases in East Germany.
While studying the issue, planners of an anti-ballistic missile system code-named Violet Friend ultimately concluded no effective defence against these weapons was possible.
As a result, the White Paper cancelled many defensive systems, like the Blue Envoy SAM and Saunders-Roe SR.177 interceptor, and significantly reduced the scope and mission of the Linesman/Mediator radar network that was being planned to replace ROTOR.
Sandys felt that the existing interceptor fleet would serve until the Bristol Bloodhound was in service, and after that point, a bomber attack was unlikely as the world increasingly switched to missiles.
As such, even the Blue Envoy surface-to-air missile was also cancelled; although it offered much higher performance than Bloodhound, by the time it arrived in the mid-1960s it would have nothing to shoot at.
Sandys relented and allowed the English Electric P.1 (which would become the Lightning) to continue development, along with a new air-to-air missile to arm it, the Hawker Siddeley Red Top.
Under pressure, in 1960 English Electric, Bristol Aeroplane Company and Vickers-Armstrong merged to form the British Aircraft Corporation, or BAC.
51 major units and a large number of smaller ones were to be disbanded or amalgamated, leaving the army with a strength of 165,000 officers and men.
Some of the work of the Royal Army Service Corps was to pass to civilian contractors, allowing a loss of 18,000 men.
The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was to lose 11,000 soldiers, and was to be organised more efficiently with a large number of depots closed.