UK Military Experts Call for Rethink on Defence Cuts

British Navel HMS Cumberland is docked in the main port of Valletta in Malta early on February 26, 2011, with evacuees from Libya as governments scrambled to pull thousands of foreign nationals away from turmoil. (Ben Borg Cardona/AFT/Getty)

Some of the UK’s most respected military leaders and experts have signed a letter to David Cameron urging him to reconsider spending cuts on defence in the light of recent unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.

The government plans to save around £3 billion a year by cutting the Ministry of Defence’s budget by 7.5 per cent, as set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) published in October 2010. The review, entitled “Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty” did not even mention the words “North Africa”, “Egypt”, “Libya”, or “Tunisia”.

The open letter, published in The Independent on Sunday, was signed by 50 people including Admiral Sir John Forster “Sandy” Woodward who commanded the British task force in the Falklands conflict, Baroness Brenda Dean, chairman of the House of Lords defence group, and other prominent figures from the academic, political, and military circles.

They highlighted the role played by the frigate HMS Cumberland in evacuating 207 people, including 69 British nationals, from Libya. The ship was on its way back to Britain to be decommissioned when it was diverted to Libya.

The letter states: “The irony of HMS Cumberland, which faces being decommissioned, playing a key role in evacuations from Benghazi is not lost on those who take an interest in the future of the Royal Navy. The announcement of redundancies in the RAF on the same day as speculation about enforcing a no-fly zone was also regrettable.”

 Junior Defence Minister Peter Luff told Parliament last Thursday that the decommissioning of HMS Cumberland and its three sister ships would save £240 million. He said HMS Cumberland costs around £16 million per year to run.

The cuts will hit the RAF and the Royal Navy the hardest. The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is to be decommissioned in 2011, instead of 2016 as originally planned, and the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is to be decommissioned in 2014. This will leave the UK with no aircraft carrier until the commissioning of HMS Queen Elizabeth-class carrier planned for 2020. A Bay class landing ship dock is also to be decommissioned and Royal Navy personnel will be reduced by around 5,000 by 2015.

The RAF’s Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft programme has been cancelled, which will leave the UK with no maritime patrol aircraft. A joint Navy/RAF team has been set up to consider the purchase of maritime patrol aircraft in the longer term.

The C-130J Hercules tactical transport aircraft will be withdrawn from service by 2022, a decade earlier than planned. Harrier jump-jets will be removed from service in 2011. This will mean the navy has no jets to operate from carriers until it takes delivery of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighters. The fleet of Tornado fast jets will be reduced in size and the RAF’s personnel will be cut by 5,000 by 2015.

The Army will see its personnel cut by around 7,000. Its heavy artillery inventory (AS90 armoured artillery vehicles) will be reduced by around 35 per cent as it withdraws from Germany and its Challenger 2 main battle tank inventory will be reduced by around 40 per cent. The number of Warrior infantry fighting vehicles will be reduced as will the number of Titan and Trojan engineer vehicles.

Nick Harvey, the UK Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, said on Monday, March 7th in a written response to a parliamentary question that “potential short-term threats to UK interests are continually reviewed and the Royal Navy’s present force structure is judged to be sufficient to meet our immediate security requirements”.