Ministers scrap warships, helicopters, and drones in £500m defence cuts | EUROtoday

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Defence secretary John Healey has introduced emergency cuts to the UK navy together with the Royal Navy’s two amphibious assault ships, a frigate and 31 helicopters.

The authorities has blamed the disputed £22 billion black gap left within the funds by the Tories. However, the Conservatives have warned that the cuts have come as a result of Labour refuses to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence.

Mr Healey informed MPs that Labour had “a dire inheritance” from the Tories in defence so wanted to scrap six “outdated” defence tasks which can save £500 million over the subsequent 5 years.

“We have begun to fix the foundations going forward,” he added.

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“For too long our soldiers, sailors and air staff have been stuck with using outdated equipment.”

The emergency assertion caught MPs unexpectedly on Wednesday and has left doubts over whether or not the UK may take again the Falklands in the event that they had been invaded once more.

The scrapping of HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion leaves the UK with none amphibious assault ships. In addition the frigate HMS Northumberland is past financial restore and will likely be decommissioned together with two Wave class tankers.

Mr Healey stated that Bulwark and Albion had been “superficially retired” by Tory ministers “but kept on the books at a cost of £9 million a year.”

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The defence secretary stated that the service chiefs had agreed to his “common sense decisions which previous governments had failed to take.”

He added: “These will not be the last difficult decisions I will have to take.”

Added to that 31 helicopters – 14 Chinooks and 17 Pumas – are additionally to be completely grounded. The UK’s alternative helicopter programme remains to be some years away. There had been 294 helicopters within the armed forces final yr.

Also going are the outdated 40-year-old watchkeeper drones, which price round £5million every, however have been beset by points and will likely be grounded.

However, Mr Healey did announce new retention funds for armed forces personnel who join extra years of service.

He stated: “I can announce today that I am introducing, from April, a new £30,000 retention payment for a cohort of tri-service aircraft engineers who sign up for (an) additional three years of service. This will affect and be open to around 5,000 personnel in total.

“And from January, a new £8,000 retention payment for army personnel who served four years, supporting 4,000 personnel each year for three years. So 12,000 troops in total.”

The authorities is presently conducting a strategic defence overview and had been unable to rule out additional cuts. There have already been considerations that the dimensions of the military will likely be lowered to 63,000.

Responding to some extent of order from Tory shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge, Mr Healey refused to verify if Storm Shadow missiles equipped to Ukraine by Britain have been utilized in Russia.

He informed MPs: “At this point I am not able to go into any further operational details. He added: “We as a nation and government are doubling down on our support for Ukraine.”

Responding to the main defence cuts, Mr Cartlidge stated: “We have heard it all! Labour calling itself the party of defence.”

He went on: “They have refused to set a pathway to 2.5 per cent (of GDP on defence spending) and instead of a pathway we have cuts.”

He questioned why the selections had been being made earlier than the strategic defence overview has reported.

He added: “Labour have made their choices and they own the consequences.”

Lib Dem defence spokesperson Richard Foord identified that the brand new Chinooks will not be on account of are available till 2027 and the medium helicopters to interchange the Pumas unlikely to be prepared till the beginning of the subsequent decade.

He stated: “I am not surprised the service chiefs agreed this. It is their job to salute and turn right.”

Former intelligence and safety committee chairman Sir Julian Lewis described the scrapping of the amphibious ships was “a black day for the Royal Marines”.

He stated that the UK wouldn’t have tha functionality for “at least a decade”.

Former defence secretary Sir Gavin Williamson was one in every of tha variety of MPs to press for the previous gear to be supplied to Ukraine to assist in the warfare towards Russia.

Meanwhile, main defence thinktank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) stated that the cuts underlined how “tight” the defence price range is.

RUSI’s navy sciences irector Matthew Savill supplied the next reflections, stated: “These are mostly capabilities that are approaching retirement anyway, have been at low levels of readiness or aren’t worth further refits or investment (Watchkeeper is probably obsolete).

“But the fact that defence either can’t crew them, or is prepared to cut them to make very modest savings over five years in the current international environment is an indication of just how tight resources must be in the MOD right now.

“In particular, the defence review will be under pressure to set out the future role of the Royal Marines; how the Navy will bring into service and sustain more escorts, which are the workhorses of the fleet; and the impact upon helicopter capacity and procurement.”