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April 12, 2004, Scotsman MOD CUTS TO GO AHEAD DESPITE IRAQ DEMANDS Gethin Chamberlain THE government is to press ahead with cost-saving cuts to Britain's armed forces despite plans to send more troops to Iraq to cope with the deteriorating security situation. Experts have warned that the army is already dangerously overstretched and a report by the House of Commons defence committee earlier this year cautioned that the armed forces were already too small to maintain current levels of deployment without damaging their effectiveness and standards. But in an interview with The Scotsman Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, has again refused to rule out cuts to naval, air and land forces. Mr Ingram criticised speculation about the future of individual units, including some of Scotland's oldest and most famous regiments, but said tough decisions still had to be made to ensure the future effectiveness of the armed forces. "I think there is a lot of speculation running which is not helpful because what we are doing is having to look at the force make-up of the army, to make sure that we have got the best balance between light, medium and heavy forces, and that force structure must take primacy," he said. "We must make sure that we have the right capabilities to meet any emerging threat." He said that despite the situation in Iraq, it was still necessary to press ahead with changes to the structure of the armed forces. "We are not doing hit lists on this; this is not just Scotland, it is across the whole of the UK. "It is not just the army, it is in terms of the RAF, it is in terms of naval strength, we are looking right across the range to make sure we have the best balance. "I don't know anyone who would say you should get rid of something in the wider community, but these are military judgment calls that then have to be made here as to what it is we need to do to get the best capability. We have to make tough decisions to get it right." However, the government may be hoping that its overseas commitments may have reduced by the time some of the cuts begin to bite. The MoD is keen to expand its medium forces at the expense of tank regiments, but the necessary equipment is still years away from going into service and much of it has yet to get off the drawing board. "Much of what has been projected will take a number of years to come into effect," said Mr Ingram. "You don't just dramatically change the overall balance overnight and there is a whole lot of training that has to go into it, we have to have the equipment to meet those new requirements. We have to review it, we have to study and we have to ensure that we get the best answers so we can plan accordingly into the future." The MoD has been planning for some time to send another battalion of troops - about 700 soldiers - to Iraq after the proposed 30 June handover of power, to bolster the security situation. There are about 8,700 British troops in Iraq, with another 2,300 more in the region, and Mr Ingram has already indicated that the government will listen favourable to any requests from commanders on the ground for more troops. However, last month a report by the defence committee warned that Britain's armed forces were being stretched to the limit by the number of commitments they were being asked to undertake. "The government must recognise that the armed forces are simply not large enough to sustain the pattern of operational deployment since the Strategic Defence Review permanently without serious risk of damage to their widely admired professional standards," the report concluded. Yesterday Charles Heyman, a senior defence analyst with Jane's Consultancy Group, said the overstretch problems had improved in recent months, but he cautioned that the government would attempt to push through cutbacks in a number of areas regardless of the situation in Iraq. "It is all about money and they are just desperate for some sort of cost saving," he said. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said the government was committed to keeping troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future. "Unless we deal with those threats to peace, freedom and the prospects for democracy then Iraq will descend into civil war and that is something that we will not allow to happen," Mr Hoon said. He said Britain had sufficient troops to do its work in southern Iraq and that an end to the deployment there was not in sight. "We obviously will be there for as long as it is necessary to achieve the job," he said. Last week Mr Ingram suggested that the date of the handover of power might have to be altered if circumstances changed. Yesterday Mr Hoon said there was "no reason at this stage" to delay the 30 June handover, a more equivocal commitment than that offered by Tony Blair last week, when he said that the date was firm.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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