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Scrapping Nimrods risks UK security, former defence chiefs warn

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Jan 27, IRNA -- The government’s decision to destroy nine new MRA4 Nimrod surveillance aircraft to save money is “perverse” and could cause serious long-term damage to the country’s interests, six former defence chiefs warned Thursday.

“Several millions of pounds have been saved but a massive gap in British security has opened,” the former chiefs from all three military services said in an open letter.

“Nimrod would have continued to provide long-range maritime and overland reconnaissance – including over the UK – anti-submarine surveillance, air-sea rescue coordination, and perhaps most importantly, reconnaissance support to the Navy’s Trident submarines,” they said.

The decision to scrap a £4 billion fleet of new long-range reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft was among huge defence cuts announced last October.

The warning in an open letter, published in the Daily Telegraph, comes after work started to scrap the Nimrods in Greater Manchester on Wednesday.

Signatures includes former Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Craig, former air force secretary Vice-Marshal Tony Mason, UK National Defence Association Air Commodore Andrew Lambert, former commanders Major General Julian Thompson and Major General Patrick Cordingley and Admiral Sir John Woodward.

“Vulnerability of sea lanes, unpredictable overseas crises and traditional surface and submarine opposition will continue to demand versatile responsive aircraft,” their letter warned..

The use of helicopters and Hercules aircraft to fulfil some of these roles “falls far short” of what the Nimrod is capable of, they added.

Following the scale of cuts announced in the government's strategic defence review, it has already been reported that Britain's armed forces will be no longer able to mount the kind of military operations conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It will also be impossible to deploy the kind of carrier taskforce sent to liberate the Falklands Islands in the war against Argentina in 1982 with the immediate scrapping HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier and Harrier planes, analysts also said

Cuts include a 17,000 reduction in the armed forces together with 25,000 civilian jobs at the Ministry of Defence with the annual budget of £30 billion cut by 8% over the next four years.

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30208933