Editorial CommEnt
Future fleet could take
battering from budget
cuts
Programmes such as the CVF may not be cut, but other key
programmes such as the type 45 destroyer could be affected
by defence cuts in the UK.
I
t is ironic that that just as the Russian The military exercises may be largely put the possible scaling back of the Royal
military seems to be flexing its symbolic – as was a recent case in which Navy into perspective.
muscles again and so many medium a Russian Tu-95 Bear flew over the aircraft In the UK, warned a senior defence official
and smaller navies seem to have serious carrier USS Nimitz in the Pacific, whilst recently quoted in The Times, the armed
naval ambitions and have committed another circled the ship. However, plans forces are heading for a ‘train crash’ because
themselves to new OPV, corvette, and announced in February by Russian Navy the government is starving them of funds
frigate programmes that, in the UK, the for vital equipment. Quoting a ‘confidential’
future of the Royal Navy – and whether it
“‘If you want to
presentation to colleagues at a meeting in
will remain a force to be reckoned with – is
again being debated.
keep a defence
the Ministry of Defence to discuss budget
cuts, the same official said defence spending
Earlier this year, Russian strategic
industrial base in
had ‘been so severely pruned that vitally
bombers fired missiles off the French coast needed equipment was simply unaffordable’.
as part of a naval exercise in the region,
the UK, then you
He also warned that the government risked
Russian military officials confirmed. Two
Tu-160 bombers tested the missiles in
are going to have
‘mortgaging the future’ of national defence.
To cut a large programme like the Future
neutral waters in the Bay of Biscay off the
to fund it. If you
Aircraft Carrier or ‘CVF’ would be politically
coast of France and Spain, tracked, as they embarrassing for the government, but it is
did so, by British and Norwegian aircraft. don’t do that, you widely anticipated that spending on several
The naval exercise came amid growing
military assertiveness from Russia’s armed
are dead,’
important programmes will be pushed back
into future years.
forces in recent times, after years of decline
Mr Turner said”
BAE Systems is, of course, a key player
following the end of the Cold War. Russia’s in several large naval programmes, and its
naval forces remain, of course, far from commander Admiral Vladimir Masorin outgoing chief executive, Mike Turner, has
the seemingly mighty force that they once to build a new nuclear-powered aircraft warned grimly that ministers must find the
were, but with Russia resuming long-range carrier to replace Admiral Kuznetsov, which money for planned weapons programmes
patrols by its bomber aircraft - a practice is scheduled to be paid off sometime after ‘or risk Britain losing the industrial capabil-
suspended after the collapse of the Soviet 2015, are more than just symbolic. ity necessary to defend itself’.
Union - there is no doubt that president Russian naval self-confidence has ‘If you want to keep a defence industrial
Putin is committed to a much more undoubtedly risen, partly due to the base and operational sovereignty in the UK,
assertive strategy. exercises mentioned above. Although then you are going to have to fund it, and
Back in December of last year, Russia there is nothing sinister in Russia’s naval research and development. If you don’t do
announced that it would stage a series of resurgence, taken together with the growing that, you are dead,’ Mr Turner was quoted
naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea sophistication of China’s People’s Liberation as saying in The Sunday Times, highlighting
and the Atlantic in what it said was a bid Army Navy (PLAN), the continued high his belief that major programmes will be
to boost its presence and protect shipping. level of spending on naval construction ‘pushed to the right’, a strategy which, said
Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyu- in countries such as India and a growing Turner, would end up costing the Ministry
kov said battleships, helicopters, and aircraft number of countries with sophisticated of Defence more money, in the long term,
would take part in the manoeuvres. requirements for new vessels, it does rather not less. WT
Warship Technology March 2008 
WT Mar - p3.indd 3 03/03/2008 11:52:03
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