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| Africa North | |
| Britain cannot keep up its role in Libya air war due to cuts | |
| 2011-06-14 | |
| Adml Sir Mark Stanhope said the campaign would have been more effective without the Government's defence cuts. The aircraft carrier and the Harrier jump-jets scrapped under last year's strategic defence review would have made the mission more effective, faster and cheaper, he said. Sir Mark warned that the Navy would not be able to sustain its operations in Libya for another three months without making cuts elsewhere. The First Sea Lord's comments will stir the debate over defence cuts that have left Britain without a working aircraft carrier and forced the Royal Navy's Harrier jump jets to be mothballed. Highlighting military anger over the shrinking Armed Forces, another admiral warned that "comical" defence cuts would leave the Navy without enough ships to be effective. Ministers have repeatedly argued that Britain has had no need of either HMS Ark Royal or the Harriers in the Libyan mission because planes can fly from bases in Italy, such as Gioia del Colle. But Sir Mark said the carrier and its planes would have been useful in Libya. "If we had Ark Royal and the Harriers, I feel relatively reassured that we would have deployed that capability off Libya," he said. Harriers would have been used for "ground support" operations, attacking Col Gaddafi's land forces, he said. Sir Mark appeared to contradict ministers' assurances on the Italian bases. He said operating Harriers from an aircraft carrier would have allowed British forces to respond more quickly to events on the ground in Libya. "The pros would have been a much more reactive force," he said. "Rather than deploying from Gioia del Colle, we would deploy within 20 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half, so obviously there are some advantages. It's cheaper to fly an aircraft from an aircraft carrier than from the shore." Scrapping Ark Royal and its Harriers was perhaps the most controversial decision made in last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review. The Coalition has said it could not afford to maintain the ship or the planes. Military analysts and retired defence chiefs have said the cuts have limited Britain's military capabilities. Despite his remarks, Sir Mark said there could be no going back on the cuts. "We have got to look forward." British forces have been in action in Libya since March, yet Col Gaddafi remains in power. On June 1, Nato extended the military mission by another 90 days. Sir Mark said British forces would be "comfortable" with another three months of operations. "Beyond that, we might have to request the Government to make some challenging decisions about priorities," he said. "There are different ways of doing this. It's not simply about giving up standing commitments, we will have to rebalance." Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said last week that Britain and France were struggling to maintain the Libyan operation without significant American support and supplies. Sir Mark confirmed that the Navy had been forced to ask the US to resupply Tomahawk cruise missiles used by submarines targeting Libya. "We are not running out, but we certainly have to take action to replace those weapons to bring stockpiles back up to where they were," he said. As well as Ark Royal and the Harriers, the Navy is losing 5,000 posts under the defence review. Rear-Adml David Steel, the head of Navy personnel, said the defence cuts would be a major challenge for the Senior Service. "Our ships are hugely capable but we just don't have enough of them," he told a veterans' conference in Plymouth at the weekend. "Having to make so many people redundant would be almost comical if it were not so serious." Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, defended the defence review last night. He said: "We continue to have the resources necessary to carry out the operations we are undertaking." An MoD source said: "Unfortunately Harriers wouldn't have been able to carry the precision weapons needed for these operations."
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Sounds like Boehner (not boner) is about to lower the boom on America's participation in this little fiasco as well. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-06-14 16:27 |
| #4 Does a gov really want a bunch of malcontent, jobless young males with recent military training hanging about? |
| Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 2011-06-14 14:19 |
| #3 England could save a ton of money by declaring that every male of military service age on welfare can either join the military for training in a rural part of the country, in military field conditions, getting free tent, food and health care, or they will no longer get welfare or health care. The vast majority will just drop out of welfare, and those that join the military for field training will cost much, much less. And some of their best may be allowed to enlist in the regular army, if they show themselves to be of value. This will save England tens of billions of pounds, annually. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-06-14 14:01 |
| #2 ION CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > GUAM MULLS INDEPENDENCE, THE TIMES ARE A'CHANGING. ARTIC > UOG President Robert Underwood = believes it is possible for Guam to be politically independent of the US [sovereign], but remain economically dependent/interdependent on same. CMF POSTER > opined that Guam is a massively important US Mil Bastion in WESTPAC - iff Guam kicks out the USA, its loss will weaken + change the US presence in Asia in profound ways. * SAME > US DESTROYER [USS "Chung-Hoon"] SENT TO SOUTH CHINA SEA AMID [Sino-Viet, Sino-Phil] TENSION IN THE SPRATLEYS. * DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PHILIPPINES RENAMES SOUTH CHINA SEAS AS "WEST PHILIPPINE SEA". GUAM-CNMI-WESTPAC = "EAST PHILIPINE SEA"??? * SAME > CENTRAL SOUTH CHINA SEAS [whole] IS PART OF CHINA'S EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-06-14 03:10 |
| #1 IIRC WAFF > Artic says that UK Royal Navy carrier pilots are being required to learn how to speak French + fly Rafale M aircraft, espec as taking off, landing aboard the decks of the FNS CHARLES DE GAULLE. Not counting the USN CVNS. D *** NG IT, DOES THIS MEAN THE AMERICANS WILL FINALLY HAVE TO LEARN ENGLISH!? ["1000-Flag" OWG-NWO "GLOBAL TASK FORCE" here]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-06-14 02:25 |