Liam Fox, Secretary of State for Defence 10:00PM GMT 26 Feb 2011
The speed of events in North Africa has shown how quickly circumstances can change and how quickly the UK can be drawn in. At a time when endless negativity is rampant, it is easy to forget that Britain remains the world's fifth biggest economy with the world's fourth biggest defence budget.
As William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, has said, Britain is "richly endowed with the attributes for success". We are a powerful and leading voice inside the UN, Nato, EU, the Commonwealth, the G8 and G20. We are part of a complex, interdependent global economy that brings the unavoidable importation of strategic risk.
An island nation like Britain, with so many interests in so many parts of the world – 92 per cent of trade moving by sea, around 10 per cent of our citizens living abroad – is inevitably going to be affected by global instability.
In most circumstances we handle these changes in the global strategic picture along with our allies, but occasionally have to deal with problems on our own as we did in the Falklands and Sierra Leone. It is because we face such a wide range of security challenges that the Government has spent a great deal of effort on creating a multilayered approach to defence and diplomacy.
This presents challenges because we were hugely weakened by the economic incompetence of the last Labour government. Next year, as a result of Gordon Brown's profligacy, we will be paying more in debt interest than we spend on the defence budget, the foreign office budget and the international aid budget put together. Put simply, the level of our debt is a national security liability.
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Liam Fox: Libya will send strategic shock waves through Arab world 26 Feb 2011
It is against this very adverse financial position that we carried out our Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).
The first task was to determine the direction for our national security. We could have chosen a fortress Britain policy, where we effectively reduced our global engagement and concentrated on protecting our borders. This would have ignored the reality of Britain's global interests.
We could have assumed a much greater future involvement in asymmetric and non-state warfare similar to the type we face today in Afghanistan. But such a committed posture would have fallen into the trap of assuming that all future wars would look like the wars of today.
Instead, the National Security Council decided on an adaptive posture which would allow greater flexibility and agility in our Armed Forces enabling them to adapt to the changing nature of threats.
The vision we've set out – Future Force 2020 – ensures that by the end of the decade we have coherent, efficient and cutting-edge Armed Forces prepared for the challenges of the future. It's important we continue down the path so we can react to the challenges of today.
As we have seen in Libya in the past 96 hours the UK still has the military capability to protect British interests. At a time when the commercial sector was unable or unwilling to fly, the Government used a range of military assets, including Royal Navy warships each with a detachment of Royal Marines and C-130 Hercules aircraft to evacuate hundreds of Britons and citizens from a dozen other countries. In fact, British Armed Forces have been leading the way with HMS Cumberland being the first military asset from any country to enter and evacuate citizens from the Libyan city of Benghazi.
Future Force 2020 is an ambitious programme and as David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has said, it will require real-terms year-on-year increases in the defence budget in the second half of the decade. But I am certain that it is achievable.
I take a different view from those critical of the SDSR and believe Britain will still be able to play a role in the world.
Future Force 2020 means that Britain will continue with its minimum credible nuclear deterrent to protect against nuclear blackmail in a world where, as North Korea and Iran have shown, nuclear proliferation is increasing. We cannot afford to take a chance on the security of future generations and that is why we will invest to replace Trident. The end of the decade will also see Britain with Type-45 destroyers, the new Type-26 Global Combat Ship and new carrier capability operating the fifth-generation Joint Strike Fighter.
The Navy's new Queen Elizabeth class carriers will have the ability to combine fast jet, helicopter, unmanned aerial vehicles and amphibious capabilities – a floating piece of sovereign British territory which we can use as a base worldwide whenever our needs require it.
We will also have seven of the new Astute class submarines at the cutting edge of global submarine technology.
The Royal Marines will continue to provide a key element of our high-readiness response force. We will be able to put 1,800 marines on to shore with all the required helicopters, protective vehicles, logistics and command and control support in a similar way as we did in Sierra Leone in 2000.
In addition to the Joint Strike Fighter, our air force will have updated Eurofighter Typhoons and renewed investment in transport aircraft with the Airbus A400M replacing our ageing Hercules fleet, supplemented by combat-tested Boeing C-17s.
The Army will be remodelled into five new multi-role brigades, plus the parachute and air-assault capability provided by 16th Air Assault Brigade. This will be supported by a range of additional assets and personnel and will mean that, if required, we could field a force of 30,000 including maritime and air assets for a one-off intervention.
Though I cannot go into detail, our internationally respected and battle-tested Special Forces will receive significantly enhanced capabilities too.
Far too much attention has been given to the older equipment which is being taken out of service and far too little to the investments we are making for the future. This is why, for example, we are investing £650 million in cyber security.
In addition to reshaping our military capabilities to face the future challenges, we must also radically restructure the MoD and Armed Forces. This is why the work of the Defence Reform Unit is so important. We also need to improve our ability to prevent conflicts through the promotion of prosperity and a peaceful resolution of disputes.
Andrew Mitchell, the Development Secretary, is readjusting our international aid programme so we are able to create a stable environment in which the eradication of poverty becomes a realistic goal.
The events of 9/11 produced a strategic shock which changed how we view the world. The events in North Africa over recent days may also come to change how we view the world. Instead of happening immediately, it is likely to be protracted.
Where all of this will end up is still to be determined, but what we do know is that providing a sound defence and foreign policy designed for adaptability is the surest way to keep our country and its people safe. This is something we are determined to deliver.
Ah well that answers that one