From the
Letters page in today's Daily Telegraph:
Cost of Libya operation
SIR – Why is Britain waging war in such an expensive manner (Comment, May 30) when others – especially the French – have shown more efficiency in their operations?
The answer is that Britain has turned its back on the sustainability and strategic mobility of maritime forces – particularly naval air power – by scrapping aircraft carriers and all the Harrier aircraft that could operate from them. Our partners – again notably the French – have not, and as BBC reports from the French carrier Charles de Gaulle show, are providing a level of leadership by example that Britain can no longer emulate.
Well before the Strategic Defence Review cuts were announced, it was pointed out in this paper that Britain’s maritime forces were the means to ensure our voice would be heard internationally. Instead, we cut them and poured good money after bad trying to prove the utility of land-based air power.
As Libyan operations are demonstrating, using land-based aircraft is far more expensive than using those based on carriers. Indeed, fuel and aircraft running costs to date for operations over Libya by a small number of RAF aircraft is far greater than the stated operating costs of an Invincible-class carrier and an air group of 12 Harrier aircraft for an entire year.
Can things be changed for the better? Only by a huge act of political will. But our global interests won’t go away and there will be more calls for interventions like the one in Libya. To meet such needs Britain must stop turning its back on opportunities presented by our ability to exploit the sea.
Dr Duncan Redford
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Modern Naval History
University of Portsmouth, Hampshire