News Centre
19/08/2010
Budget Cuts Could Sink New Aircraft Carriers
Britain could cancel one or both of its planned new aircraft carriers to cut costs, it emerged on Thursday night. Britain’s ageing squadrons of 106 Tornado fighter planes are also reportedly being lined up for retirement by 2020 – five years earlier than originally planned.
The claims, from Ministry of Defence sources, came as coalition colleagues argue over plans for the £20billion Trident nuclear submarine project. They have yet to agree on how it should be funded or whether it should even go ahead.
Defence secretary Liam Fox wants the Treasury to pay for Trident and has promised a defence spending review this October.
Last night’s claims appear to pre-empt that review.
Work is already under way on the carriers, involving about 10,000 British shipyard jobs that could now be threatened. The former Labour government gave the two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers the go-ahead in 2007, at a cost of £5.2billion.
The Queen Elizabeth class carriers, due to enter service in 2016 and 2018, are being built by a consortium including BAE Systems, Babcock International and Thales.
The MoD is expected to cut costs by up to 20 per cent by 2015, as part of the coalition government’s bid to reduce Britain’s £154.7billion deficit.
‘We could have one, two or no new aircraft carriers,’ said the source.
‘All options are on the table. That does not mean we are leaning towards one particular option, but none should be considered as too radical.’
There are no plans to axe Trident, despite renewed calls, added the source.
Click here: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/838576-budget-cuts-could-sink-new-aircraft-carriers
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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....