The announcement of a range of immediate defence cuts made by the U.K.’s Minister for Defence John Healey on 20 November to save £500 million over five years was both unexpected and ill-timed. With the government’s own Strategic Defence Review (SDR) launched by Prime Minister Keir Starmer less than three months old, this initial announcement indicates that it is once again likely to be a financial, rather than strategic, review.
While the Government still pays ‘lip-service’ to a commitment to raise the U.K.s defence budget to 2.5 percent of GDP it has yet to give any commitment to the timeframe under which this will happen – something no doubt the incoming U.S. President elect Donald Trump will be quick to notice.
The most striking aspect of the announcement is that the two Royal Marine Commando assault ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark will be scrapped, with no replacement scheduled. At a time when Russia’s increasing aggression could well manifest itself into a threat to the Baltic countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as the rest of NATO’s Northern Flank, standing down two of the very naval assets that provide the U.K. with flexibility to participate in the Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) indicates a depressing lack of commitment. Both ships have previously played leading roles in JEF(M) Cougar and Amphibious Task Group deployments over many years.
There must be concern that in some circles of the Treasury the future of the Royal Marines, in whole or in part, may now be questioned, particularly in a maritime role, even though Healey stated that “the future for our Royal Marines, and their elite force, will be reinforced in the SDR.” We shall see.
The scrapping of RFA Wave Knight and RFA Wave Ruler, whether they have been to sea recently or not, once again reduces the Royal Navy’s support fleet, although the inclusion of HMS Northumberland is more understandable given the high expense of the repair bill.
The reduction of the Boeing Chinook Ch-47 fleet by 14 of the oldest helicopters is tempered by the agreed purchase from Boeing of 14 new CH-47G Chinooks which will begin delivery around 2027. The loss of the 17 Puma helicopters should be mitigated when (or if) the government approves the New Medium Helicopter (NMH) programme for which currently, there is only one remaining bidder – Leonardo with its AW149.
Finally, the Army will lose its troubled 46 Thales Watchkeeper Mk1 unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with no proposal yet tabled for their replacement.
It is worth noting that the Conservative Government also claimed that the previous Labour government also left a “black hole’ in its defence spending plans.
by Andrew Drwiega
