Armed forces stunned by Trident bill
In a break with historical precedent,
George Osborne, the Chancellor, has ruled that the entire cost of the new system must be found from within the day-to-day defence budget.
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One senior defence official said: "It's a stitch-up. There was absolutely no hint of this during the election. The armed forces have been knifed in the back by the Treasury.
Major capabilities such as Britain's two new aircraft carriers may now be axed or delayed, the number of Joint Strike Fighter aircraft is set to be halved and a raft of RAF, Army and Naval bases will be closed in addition to other cuts, to fund the Trident replacement programme
Such are the financial pressures on the MoD that the four-submarine deterrent could be reduced to three or possibly two vessels to save money.
Under the new defence review, the entire Tornado fleet could be axed along with an armoured brigade, artillery regiments, the Nimrod MR2 anti-submarine fleet and RAF Kinloss.
The number of Joint Strike Fighters could be cut from from 150 to 75 and troops withdrawn from Germany.
One of Britain's two new aircraft carriers could also be cancelled.
I guess they really mean the Nimrod MRA4!
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Meanwhile, Gen Sir Richard Dannatt has made his views clear.
Having to pay for Trident is the Ministry of Defence's worst nightmare.
There is no way the current defence programme can be manipulated not only to fund operations in Afghanistan, and to recover from the £35 billion overspend inherited from the previous Government, but also a Trident replacement, the aircraft carrier programme and our acquisition and operation of a host of fast jets.
That seems obvious.
Of course the RAF must have the most capable aircraft available to protect our skies, meaning that we need enough of the latest batch of Typhoon aircraft to do this. But we cannot also afford to keep the ageing Tornadoes and the historic Harriers, of Falklands fame.
This dose of reality impacts on the aircraft carrier programme, too. At £4 billion, the two ships are not actually that expensive – but at £10 billion, the Joint Strike Fighters intended to fly off them most certainly are. This brings the whole project into doubt......
His solutions?
The answers lie with more and smaller ships to secure the sea lanes, and land-based planes whose range is enhanced by a renegotiated air-to-air refuelling programme.
And in case anyone thinks that this retired general is wearing khaki-coloured spectacles, the Army needs to reduce immediately its holdings of main battle tanks and heavy artillery, and its presence in Germany.
So apart from Typhoon, what land-based, AAR capable, [offensive] aircraft would those be if Tornado, Harrier and JSF are off the menu?
