Defence review: Cameron confirms 8% spending cuts

[dutchman]

David Cameron has confirmed defence spending is to be cut by 8% in real terms over four years, as he unveils the strategic defence review.



He said RAF and Navy numbers would be reduced by 5,000 each, Army numbers by 7,000 and the Ministry of Defence would lose 25,000 civilian staff by 2015.

Nimrod reconnaissance planes would be axed and there will be fewer frigates and destroyers, he said.

Labour's Ed Miliband said the review had been "hastily prepared".

Mr Cameron opened his Commons' statement by denying the review was simply a "cost saving exercise", saying it was a "step change in the way we protect this country's security interests".

'Hard-headed'

He said the defence budget would fall by 8% over four years but will meet the Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence and would still leave Britain with the fourth largest military in the world.

There would be no cuts to support for troops in Afghanistan - which is funded separately from the Treasury's special reserve, he told MPs.

Mr Cameron vowed to push ahead with replacing Britain's Trident nuclear missile system but said their replacement would be scaled back, with the number of warheads per boat cut from 58 to 40, as part of a £750m package of savings.

The life of the current Trident submarines would also be extended, with the final spending decision on their replacement delayed until 2016 - after the next general election.

Mr Cameron said he wanted the Ministry of Defence to become more commercially "hard headed" and said it would face "significant challenges" as a result of cuts.

He confirmed HMS Ark Royal will be decommissioned four years early and the UK's Harrier jump jets will be axed. Two new aircraft carriers will be built but one would be placed on "extended readiness".

A "large well-equipped" Army would remain - that would amount to 95,500 personnel by 2015 - 7,000 less than today, Mr Cameron said.

Blow

Tanks and heavy artillery would be reduced by 405 - but there would be 12 more Chinooks and communications equipment, he said.

He also said naval manpower would fall to 30,000 by 2015 and the total number of frigates and destroyers would drop from 23 to 19 by 2020.

The future of RAF Kinloss is in doubt as nine Nimrod planes are being axed.

BBC Scotland correspondent James Cook said it had come as a big blow for the base - which employs 1,500 people and could now close as an RAF base although the Ministry of Defence is likely to retain the site and may eventually use it as a barracks for soldiers returning from Germany.

The future of nearby RAF Lossiemouth remains uncertain.

BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the decision to decommission the Ark Royal and axe the UK's force of Harrier jump jets meant that, until at least 2019, no planes would be able to fly from the new aircraft carriers.

Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy described the arrangement as "peculiar" and "driven by finance".

He told the BBC: "What's the purpose of an aircraft carrier if not to carry aircraft? And I think to leave our country without a single fixed-wing aircraft able to fly off our aircraft carriers for a decade is a very worrying decision.

"It can't be driven by security needs or strategic needs. No-one based on the security needs of our country would come to the decision that a decade without an aeroplane on an aircraft carrier is the right decision."

Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC the fleet had to modernise and have the "correct balance for the next 30 to 40 years".

He said there had been periods in the past - before the Harriers came on stream - when the UK had aircraft carriers with no planes to fly on them. Dr Fox said there would be a range of helicopters and unmanned aircraft which would still be able to fly from them.

The BBC has learned that at least one of the new carriers will be redesigned so that it can deploy normal fighter aircraft that do not need a Harrier-style vertical lift capability.

Dr Fox said that there would be "interoperability" so strike fighter aircraft from allies such as France could land on UK aircraft carriers, and vice versa.

The last strategic defence review in 1998 took more than a year, while this one has been carried out in five months, leading to accusations that the government has rushed the process.

It has been undertaken at the same time as the Spending Review - due to be published on Wednesday - which is expected to see huge cuts to departmental spending across Whitehall.