£10bn 'black hole' means new defence cuts loom - The Telegraph 24 Jun 11
The Daily Telegraph has learned that Ministry of Defence officials have calculated that the department is at least £10 billion short of what it will need in the coming years.
The financial “mismatch” is larger than all the defence cuts announced in last year’s Spending Review, and has raised fears of another round of painful reductions in the Armed Forces.
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James Arbuthnot, the chairman of the Commons defence committee this week suggested that the MoD was now seeking savings of £8 billion.
But MoD insiders said the new black hole is actually higher than that and likely to be “in the teens of billions”.