Liam Fox announces army cuts but promises extra funds in future

Cuts will lead to smallest British army in more than a century but armed forces will see modest spending increases from 2015 After months of fierce debate, the Treasury and Ministry of Defence have promised Britain’s armed forces modest spending increases in the future in return for deep cuts in the army to help plug a budget black hole estimated to be £43bn. Liam Fox, the defence secretary, announced long-awaited cuts, in addition to those made in last year’s defence review, which will lead to the smallest British army in more than a century and the closure of a number of RAF bases. The army will shrink from its present size of about 101,000 to 82,000 by 2020. The defence review had already cut the army by 7,000 by 2015 when British troops will no longer have a combat role in Afghanistan. Though Fox did not say so in his statement to MPs, defence officials made clear that the fresh round of cuts would mean the end of a number of infantry battalions, probably including some whose soldiers have fought recently in Afghanistan. Partly to compensate for the loss of regular soldiers, Fox said he wanted to increase substantially the number of fully-trained reserves of all three branches of the armed forces – the navy, army and air force. He said he wanted to bring Britain more into line with other countries including the US. One of the reserves’ priority tasks would be “homeland security”. Defence officials indicated that the aim was to increase the number of fully trained reservists from a little more than 20,000 to 35,000 by 2015. Beefing up the reserves would cost an estimated £1.5bn. However, Fox made clear his aim was for a “total force of around 120,000 broadly in the ratio 70:30 regular to reserve”. The Treasury said the armed forces will benefit from a 1% real terms increase – that is, taking inflation into account – in their equipment budget from 2015 to 2020 at a cost of £3bn. It is rare for government departments to be offered such increases in advance but the prime minister has backed pleas from defence chiefs for increases in real terms in their budget once the current four-year spending review period is over. The £3bn will pay for 14 new Chinook helicopters, three new US Rivet spy planes, upgrading the army’s ageing fleet of Warrior armoured vehicles, and more unmanned drones for the RAF. The gap between the actual defence budget and weapons programmes promised by previous governments has been estimated at £38bn. Defence officials said on Monday that Bernard Gray, the new head of MoD procurement, had identified an additional £5bn worth of underfunded liabilities. The army will be centred around multi-role brigades, with 19 Light Brigade based in Northern Ireland broken up with some of its constituent parts – including The Black Watch – assigned to other brigades. RAF Leuchars will close, leaving RAF Lossiemouth as the only remaining air force base in Scotland. Leuchars will become an army barracks housing some of the 20,000 British troops who are due to leave Germany by 2020, Fox announced. Most of the changes will take place after 2015, when the next general election is due, Fox said. He described it as “an incredibly complex decision and it has inevitably been a balancing act”. The shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, described the government’s announcement as “strategic shrinkage by stealth”. He told Fox: “The army has been slashed to cover up the funding gaps left by the rushed defence review.” Fox had announced cuts to the army of 19,000 – just under a fifth of the entire force – in just 10 months, he said. When in opposition, the Conservatives had promised thousands of extra troops, Murphy said. General Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff, said in a statement: “If we get it right, this will result in a modern, hard-hitting joint force still capable of operating at the divisional level across the full spectrum of conflict. It will deliver armed forces of which we can all be proud.” The National Audit Office, parliament’s financial watchdog, for the fifth year running, said it could not approve the MoD’s accounts. It said £5.3bn worth of assets could not be accounted for, including more than 4,000 Bowman radio sets used for secure communications. Fox’s statement came as the MoD announced that a British soldier from 1st Battalion The Rifles was killed in an explosion in Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province in Afghanistan. The soldier’s death took the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 377. Defence policy Liam Fox Tax and spending Military 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.