The British Defense Ministry has no choice but to drastically cut back on military equipment spending, it said in a strategy paper published Wednesday.
"We can no longer set out to buy as much as we did previously," reads the ministry's so-called Green Paper, which tabled some of the numerous questions London will have to answer in its defense review to be drafted after the elections.
One question is which of its large defense purchasing programs — including orders for two carriers, dozens of highly modern stealth fighter jets and the delayed and costly A400M military freighter — will have to undergo a cost-cutting review.
"We need to decide what is, and what is not, affordable in the context of our defense and national security policies and we need to ensure our short-term budgeting takes account of long-term impacts."
Britain's last strategic defense review was done more than a decade ago — years before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where Britain has some 9,000 troops.
The future defense strategy will involve "tough decisions and sticking to them, having ensured the plans were deemed strategically aligned, affordable and achievable."
The paper did not mention specific programs except for the Trident nuclear submarine fleet, which London pledges to modernize. While the two carriers are not mentioned, British Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth has promised the construction would proceed. Everything else is to be decided later this year.
What's clear now is that London will have to ensure that military spending becomes more efficient. Delays and cost overruns affecting the British military's 15 biggest acquisition programs in 2008-09 resulted in unforeseen costs of $1.9 billion, the paper said.
In a bid to counter that, London pledged to annually inform Parliament about cost developments related to defense purchasing.
Afghanistan will remain a top priority for London, with $8 billion allocated for troops and equipment in 2011, up from $5.5 billion this year.
Britain in the paper stresses the need to team up with other European NATO allies, including France, to cooperate militarily and maybe even on defense purchasing issues.
The French comeback into NATO "offers an opportunity for even greater co-operation with a key partner across a range of defense activity," it said.
Experts have long called for European nations to team up when buying defense equipment in a bid to cut costs.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
