UK defence cuts 'manageable,' armed forces chief insists
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Nov 17, IRNA -- The lose of Britain’s military capability from defence budget cuts will pose risks but will be manageable, according to armed forces chief Gen Sir David Richards.
Facing his first question session from MPs since becoming Chief of the Defence Staff last month, Richards insisted the scrapping of Harrier jump jets and HMS Ark Royal, leaving Britain with no planes to fly from aircraft carriers for a decade, was less risky than losing 'certain other capabilities'.
He accepted that some considered the cuts a big risk but said that it was 'nice to know' that Britain would have a carrier strike capability by 2020.
Richards also told the Defence Select Committee that losing the Nimrod spy planes in last month’s defence review was also 'a risk but not a gamble'.
He argued that insuring against every threat would have left the country broken.
Some of his predecessors, including Lord Craig, have criticised the defence cuts as 'savage savings' and blowing “an enormous hole” in Britain’s maritime capability.
Last week, a group of former British navy chiefs urged the government to reverse its decision to scrap the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the fleet of Harrier jets, saying they were 'the most dangerous of the defence cuts'.
In a joint letter to the Times, the former admirals warned that the cuts would leave the oil-rich Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic open to a fresh Argentinian attack 'from which British prestige ... might never recover'.
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