MAJOR CUTS are to be made to Royal Air Force squadrons in the United Kingdom, along with the closure of several bases, to pay for extra spending in Afghanistan, the British government announced.
Nearly £1 billion will be spent on 22 new heavy-lift Chinook helicopters – though the first will not arrive in Afghanistan for four years – and on body armour, mine detection and night-vision equipment.
The measures, announced in the House of Commons by secretary of state for defence Bob Ainsworth, are the most visible illustration yet that British troops will spend years more in Afghanistan.
“This is a difficult balance to strike, but I am confident that we have got that balance right, and that this will be demonstrated where it matters most – on the front line,” Mr Ainsworth told MPs.
Saying that jobs would go in the military and in the ministry for defence, Mr Ainsworth said the military budget had come under stress this year because of rising fuel, pay and pension costs, along with an escalation in the costs of new equipment.
One RAF base in Cottesmore in the East Midlands will close when its Harrier squadron is moved, while a Tornado squadron in RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and RAF Marham in Norfolk will each be cut.
The future of RAF Kinloss in Scotland is now also under question following the decision to pull the long-range surveillance Nimrod MR2 based there out of service in March 2010, and to delay its replacement by two years.
Older versions of Merlin Mk1 and Lynx helicopters currently in service will also be retired earlier than planned, while a royal navy survey ship and mine-hunter will also be withdrawn from service.
Along with the 22 Chinooks, an extra C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft will be bought to improve communications between the UK and Afghanistan.
Older Hercules aircraft will be equipped with better anti-missile protection.
Following his return from Afghanistan last weekend, prime minister Gordon Brown announced £280 million (€313 million) would be spent on extra armoured personnel carriers to protect British troops from landmine attacks.
Accusing Labour of trying to fight a war “on a peacetime budget”, Conservative shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said: “This is the end, the final wasted chapter in the New Labour project.”
The body of the 100th British soldier killed in Afghanistan this year, Lance Corp Adam Drane, was flown home yesterday to be greeted by the now-traditional welcome by residents of the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett.
Meanwhile, the first of the 500 extra British troops to be deployed by Mr Brown to Afghanistan to support the military surge ordered by United States president Barack Obama have arrived.
The UK this year will spend £34.9 billion on defence, including £11.7 billion on staff and £13.4 billion on new equipment, maintenance and research and development, and nearly £10 billion on operations.
The government’s spending decisions, said the director of the Royal United Services Institute, Prof Michael Clarke, were being made without a full review of the country’s military needs for years ahead.