MoD and Treasury agree modest spending increase for armed forces

Deal offers 1% boost to equipment budget from 2015 to 2030, but includes closure of a number of army and RAF barracks The Treasury and Ministry of Defence have agreed to a last-minute package offering the armed forces modest future spending increases in return for hefty cuts now to plug a £43bn gap in existing commitments, the Guardian has been told. Liam Fox, the defence secretary, is expected to announce the package, including the closure of a number of RAF and army barracks, to the Commons. In a move likely to provoke bitter controversy he is expected to confirm that the army will shrink by a further 10,000 soldiers to 84,000, its smallest size in more than a century. Last year’s defence review cuts the army by 7,000 from a total of more than 100,000 by 2015 when British troops will no longer have a combat role in Afghanistan. The fresh round of cuts is likely to mean the end of some infantry battalions. Fox will say the number of fully trained reserves of all three branches of the armed forces – the navy, army and air force – will increase from slightly more than 20,000 now to 35,000 by the year 2015. This will bring the proportion of reserves to regular service personnel more in line with other countries including the US. One of the reserves’ priority tasks will be “homeland security”. Beefing up the reserves will cost an estimated £1.5bn. In addition, the Treasury has agreed that the armed forces will benefit from a 1% real term increase – taking inflation into account – in their equipment budget from 2015 to 2020. It is rare for government departments to be offered such rises in advance but David Cameron has repeatedly backed pleas from defence chiefs for real term rises in their budget after the current four-year spending review period. The gap between the defence budget and equipment programmes by previous governments has hitherto been estimated at £38bn. Defence officials say Bernard Gray, the new head of MoD procurement, has identified a further £5bn worth of over-commitments. RAF Leuchars will close, leaving Lossiemouth the only RAF base in Scotland. Leuchars will become an army base housing some of the 20,000 British troops due to leave Germany by 2020. RAF Cottesmore in Rutland will also make way for the army while military barracks in Kirknewton, Edinburgh, in Bassingbourn and Waterbeach – which are both near Cambridge – and in Woodbridge near Ipswich will be sold off, Fox will announce. Military Defence policy Liam Fox Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.