Tip The Corner (am I'm really Sherry, still can't get this thing to change my name. Some worrying pieces in this report
In 20 years' time, a new study predicts, almost the only thing British about Britain's Armed Forces will be the men and women serving in them, and the Union Flags sewn on their Chinese-made uniforms to distinguish them from their EU colleagues.
A wealth of evidence has come to light to show how, over the next two decades, the British Army will have been almost wholly reorganised and re-equipped as part of the European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF), directed from Brussels, using equipment supplied almost entirely by other countries in the EU. No longer will it be technically or politically possible for Britain's Armed Forces to fight independently, or in alliance with those of the US.
Yet the scale and the speed of this astonishing transformation has been deliberately concealed by the Ministry of Defence - to the point where British firms are being instructed to buy foreign-made defence equipment which can be relabelled to look as though it is British-made. This startling picture emerges from an exhaustive study of current British and EU defence planning carried out by Dr Richard North, for a paper to be published this autumn on "The Secret Realignment of UK Defence Policy".
Britain's abandonment of its military co-operation with the US in favour of integration with our European "partners" has been prompted by the forthcoming revolution in warfare centred on satellites, electronics, and a new generation of vehicles, unmanned aircraft and weapons systems. Almost across the board, the MoD is turning its back on joint defence projects with the US, even where these involve British firms, in favour of equipment supplied or developed by firms in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.
In the plan for integrating British forces into the 60,000 strong ERRF, with its command centre in Brussels, the key to co-ordinating future operations will be satellite systems that are largely French-built, led by Galileo, the EU's planned rival to the US GPS system. British troops will no longer be transported by US-built C130 and C17 aircraft, but by the A400M "Eurolifter". Under the £14 billion project known as Fres (Future Rapid Effects System), their armoured fighting vehicles will be supplied by Sweden and fitted with French guns and ammunition.
Joint US-British bids to supply £1.6-billion-worth of trucks were rejected in favour of Austrian-built models, with the name of the former British firm ERF added to imply a British contribution. US and other non-EU reconnaissance vehicles were rejected in favour of obsolescent and far more expensive ones from the Italian firm Iveco, although their origin is again disguised behind the name of the British firm BAE Land Systems.
A joint project with the US to develop a 155mm howitzer has been dropped in favour of a French gun firing German-designed shells. Battlefield radar systems are being built in Germany and Sweden. The development of unmanned aircraft - a vital element in future tactics - is led by France, while the RAF's main strike aircraft will be the Eurofighter, firing French-made missiles.
So the list continues, for projects large and small - not forgetting the three giant carriers to be shared between the Royal Navy and the French, with the French firm Thales playing a major part in the design and building. The consistent pattern in all this procurement policy is that, wherever possible, US firms are excluded, even where this means excluding British firms associated with them.
Such a gulf is now opening up between the US and EU defence forces that, on the battlefields of the future, co-ordinated by electronics and satellites, it will be impossible for them to fight alongside each other. And yet - while the evidence for what is going on can be found by anyone who knows how to use the internet - our politicians have so far remained astonishingly silent. In this respect our Opposition is almost as culpable as our ministers. |