Defence Cuts could fail UK Armed Forces

An influential committee of MPs has warned that the military cuts made last year risk failing British soldiers, airmen and soldiers and their capabilities may be restricted from 2015.  

The Defence Select Committee says there was already "growing concern", that servicemen and women could not fulfil their responsibilities due to the twin pressures of Afghanistan and Libya. Partnered with the current financial climate, the committee has rejected the Prime Minister’s view that Britain had and would continue to have a "full spectrum" defence capability.

In evidence to the committee, the heads of the three arms of the military warned that after the SDSR they would not be able to do all that they once been able to.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) was completed last autumn and was supposed to set the future shape and purpose of the Armed Forces. However, it took place concurrently with the cross-governmental Spending Review, which saw a large chunk of the Whitehall budget cut in order to reduce the deficit.

The Prime Minister has said there will be a real terms increase in the Ministry of Defence's budget after 2014. It was announced last month that spending on equipment would increase by 1% above inflation each year after 2015. That will lead to Future Force 2020 - the next stage of the development and reshaping of Britain's Armed Forces.

Committee chairman James Arbuthnot said: "Decisions for post-2015 funding will have to be made in the very near future to ensure progress towards Future Force 2020.

"If the ambition of a real-term funding increase is not realised, we will have failed our Armed Forces.

"The Government appears to believe that the UK can maintain its influence while reducing spending in defence and at the Foreign Office."