• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UK armed forces under 'substantial' strain, says defense secretary

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Jan 20, IRNA -- Britain’s armed forces are under 'substantial' strain after fighting in two wars, Defense Secretary John Hutton admitted Tuesday during a visit to Afghanistan.
In an interview with the BBC, Hutton also acknowledged that the prominent public view on Iraq is that UK troops should not have entered into the war.

"I think the campaign in Iraq. I think people will come to their own views. I think at the moment the prominent view is that we shouldn't have gone in. I am very aware of that," he said.

Last week, Chief of the General Staff General Sir Richard Dannatt told an audience in London that service personnel had been 'seriously stretched' by years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research, Dannatt called for service personnel to see time between overseas deployments rise from two years to 30 months, saying 'many families and marriages have unfortunately fallen victim to the relentless pace of operations'.

"I agree with what the general has said and I think we have accepted that the strain of mounting two major operations, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, is creating very substantial strain and stress on our military forces," Hutton told the BBC.

He believed that the removal of most of the combat forces from Iraq will 'give us the opportunity to take stock, to refresh and renew ourselves'.

"But we are capable of mounting very substantial operations in Afghanistan and we have got very significant resources committed to this campaign," the defense secretary insisted.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced last month the Britain will increase the number of its troops deployed to Afghanistan from just over 8,000 to 8,300.

Reports suggest the UK government may come under more US pressure to boost the numbers further, but Hutton decline to say if additional troops would be sent.

"When it comes to the reorganization of particular fighting units, these are matters for the service chiefs to sort out," he said. But some specialist units where there has been particular strain because they are small in number and 'we have got to address', he said.