[BITList] British Forces Emasculated - Extended Readiness!

[John Feltham]

Armed forces can't hide their despair as Cameron outlines defence review cuts

By Tim Shipman and Ian Drury
Last updated at 1:27 PM on 19th October 2010
Ark Royal and Harrier jump jets scrapped immediately
UK to have no working aircraft carrier for a decade
Army to lose 7,000 troops, RAF 5,000 and Navy 4,000
Trident renewal delayed for five years, saving £750m
Cameron insists: 'We'll still be front rank military power'
Angry Harrier pilot challenges him about job losses
The Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and its fleet of Harrier jets is to be scrapped 'with immediate effect', leaving Britain without any fully operating aircraft carriers for a decade.

Under the Strategic Defence and Security Review to be outlined by David Cameron this afternoon, the iconic carrier and the aircraft that won the Falklands War will be retired.

The renewal of Trident will also be delayed by at least five years with a final decision on replacing the submarine-launched nuclear deterrent postponed until after 2015, saving £750million.

The move comes despite Mr Cameron making Trident an election issue just six months ago - and lambasting his then rival Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg for not committing his party to the same policy.


Drastic cuts: David Cameron addressing staff at the Permament Joint Headquarters this morning


Stern: Defence secretary Liam Fox and outgoing Armed Forces chief Jock Stirrup listen to Mr Cameron


Angry: Military staff listen as David Cameron addresses them at The Permanent Joint Headquarters

In what Mr Cameron told the Cabinet was ‘one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make’, he will also announce that the UK will have aircraft carriers with no jet fighters until 2020.

 Two new carriers will be built because penalty clauses in the contracts mean it would be more expensive to scrap one.
But the first will be a £3billion ‘white elephant’ that will never carry any aircraft and will be mothballed or sold after just three years in service. 

The cuts will also see:

The Army lose 7,000 soldiers, more than 100 tanks and 200 armoured vehicles. An armoured brigade will go and the British presence in German will ultimately be withdrawn;
The RAF will lose at least 5,000 service personnel and two RAF bases are to close;
Navy warships will fall from 24 to 19 and 4,000 personnel will go. Harrier jump jets are being scrapped next year and not F35 Joint Strike Fighters will replace them until 2015;
Special forces will be handed a funding boost to allow the purchase of sophisticated weapons and communications equipment.

Scrapped: HMS Ark Royal will be hit by the cuts which will also hit the Navy's Harrier aircraft


Axed: The Fleet Air Arm's Harrier will go completely in the swingeing round of defence cuts

Mr Cameron admitted this morning that 'some difficult decisions' had been made but insisted Britain will stay an 'absolutely front rank military power with full capability in all the services'.

But as he outlined the approach at the Permanent Join Headquarters in north west London this morning, troops clutched their heads and looked crestfallen.


Targeted cut: A Trident missile, part of the UK's nuclear deterrent. the missile system's fate will be put on hold for five years by David Cameron

Harrier jet pilot Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Chris Ward, 37, said: 'I am a Harrier pilot and I have flown 140 odd missions in Afghanistan and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that, please, sir?'

The Prime Minister replied: 'The military advice is pretty clear that when we have to make difficult decisions, it is right to keep the Typhoon as our principal ground attack aircraft, working in Afghanistan at the moment, and it is right to retire the Harrier.'

Another member of staff queried: 'Why are we spending billions on aircraft carriers just so that U.S. and French aircraft can take off and not UK fighters'

When Mr Cameron protested that they would have British fighters, he was told 'not for 10 years, sir'. 

Later as he met staff in the control room, the Prime Minister said: 'Defence is the first duty of any government and it is a duty, as Prime Minister, that I take incredibly seriously.
'Most important of all, we will make sure that Britain is well defended and we have a set of armed forces that actually are fit for the modern world.'

The future of the aircraft carriers was apparently the sticking point in negotiations with the Ministry of Defence and was finally signed off by the Cabinet yesterday.

Britain will now not have the option of launching fighter jets at sea until at least 2019. Defence Secretary Liam Fox said this morning that 'inter-operability' with allies would become a priority instead. 

This raises the prospect of countries like U.S. and France being able to launch jets from UK carriers when Britain cannot.

Dr Fox said: 'You need to be looking not to the end of the decade but to the 35 or 40 years of life of the carriers and to have inter-operability with our allies seems to me to be a priority in that period if we are to have effective alliances.' 

The Defence Secretary said there had only been a 'very limited' ability to fly fast jets from carriers in Afghanistan in recent years and stressed there are other resources.

'We have Tornado, we have Typhoon and the military view at the moment is that because we don't have at the present time any problems with basing or overflights, then Britain is able to project air power in that way,' he told the BBC.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has also signalled Britain will not embark on military interventions alone in future.

'I think it is more likely that we would do it in conjunction with our partners,' he said last night. 

The cuts have raised questions about Britain’s ability to defend its interests and provoked anger in Tory ranks that Mr Cameron has bowed to Lib Dem demands to delay Trident.

The delay means Britain’s ageing fleet of Vanguard-class Trident nuclear submarines will have to stay in service longer.

The first submarine is due to go out of service in 2022. But the delay means the first new boat will not enter service until 2028 or 2029.


Downing Street sources say the delay was ‘military not political’ and that there is no need to spend money yet. A No 10 source said: ‘David Cameron’s determination to have Trident is not in question.’

But a senior Tory said: ‘Yet again we seem to be giving ground to the Lib Dems on matters of principle.’

CAMERON ASSURES OBAMA
David Cameron phoned Barack Obama to reassure the U.S. President that Britain would remain a 'first-rate military power'. 

A Downing Street source said: 'The Prime Minister talked the President through the Government's new National Security Strategy and outlined the thinking behind the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

'He said that the UK would remain a first-rate military power and a robust ally of the United States. 




'We would be reforming our defence and security capabilities for the challenges of the 21st Century.

'We remained committed to meeting our responsibilities in NATO and would continue to work closely with the U.S. on the full range of current security priorities.

'There was also a discussion of ongoing, close UK-U.S. co-operation on counter-terrorism'

Dr Fox insisted today: 'I do not believe that any of the measures that we take will in any way affect the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent, nor our ability to have a continuous at-sea deterrent.' 

The Prime Minister is also under fire for the decision not to preserve Britain’s carrier strike capability. 

Former Navy chiefs Admiral Lord West and Admiral Sir Jonathon Band have both warned that the absence of jets on board the carriers would make it impossible to retake the Falklands if the Argentinians chose to invade.

For the next ten years the UK will have just one active carrier, armed with helicopters, with HMS Queen Elizabeth entering service in 2016.

That will leave the UK dependent on the French or Americans to help in the event of a new Falklands crisis over the next decade.

In 2019, when the second carrier Prince of Wales arrives, the Queen Elizabeth will be put into ‘extended readiness’ - military terminology for mothballing - and may even be sold abroad.

The Prince of Wales will also carry just helicopters for a year before the American Joint Strike Fighter jets come into service in 2020.

Commander John Muxworthy, chief executive of the UK National Defence Association - which campaigns in support of the Armed Forces - who served in the Navy for 32 years, said: ‘The Navy is being decimated. It is unpardonable and history will never forgive it.’

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, of the Royal United Services Institute, added that the delays would affect morale on the new aircraft carriers. 

'The full message that's coming from the Government on the aircraft carriers is they wish they weren't in this situation, and if they could have cancelled them and saved a significant amount of money, they would have done,' he said.

'But I think there are going to be real difficulties with the morale of people operating that capability knowing that the Government doesn't really think they are that important.'



 
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