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29/08/2010
D-Day Looming for MOD Chiefs
Report by Tracey Boles in the Sunday Express dated 29 August 2010.
The National Security Council will pave the way for the deepest defence cuts for a generation this week when it draws up a shortlist of cost savings from as many as 250 options.
The shortlist, to be presented to ministers as part of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), will shape the UK’s defence industry for the coming decade. Final decisions are to be made later in September ahead of the SDR’s publication on October 22.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to make swingeing cuts in the face of a £36 billion black hole and a requirement from the coalition to drastically reduce public spending. The sheer scale of the cuts required means that no stone has remained unturned as the MoD seeks procurement savings.
Amphibious ships could go while the Navy’s new flagship aircraft carriers are likely to have far fewer Joint Strike Fighters than originally envisaged. The jump-jet version of the state-of-the-art US aircraft is now unlikely to be ordered.
All the RAF’s Tornados could be grounded as well as Puma helicopters and Hercules transporters. Thousands of personnel could be axed across the three services. Bases would also go.
Senior industry executives see the defence industry morphing so that it can concentrate on unmanned drones, nuclear capability and precision-guided bombs.
Click here: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/196267/D-Day-looming-for-MoD-chiefs
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Britain's Armed Forces: Under-funded and overstretched
Britain’s Armed Forces are chronically under-funded and over-stretched. Not since the 1930s have our Navy, Army and Air Force been so starved of the resources they need. Our Forces have been slashed in half over the past two decades alone – yet in the same period our military commitments have vastly increased. This is a disaster for the men and women of our Armed Forces – and a catastrophe for our nation.
Inadequate equipment means that lives have been lost unnecessarily. Pay and conditions for our servicemen and women have fallen well below those of their civilian equivalents – to the point where a traffic warden or cleaner can earn more than a soldier. And due to funding cuts, long-overdue improvements to housing for service families have been delayed or cancelled. The nation’s Covenant with the Armed Forces has been broken....