UK 'must slash defence spending'

The UK should consider slashing defence spending by up to £24bn and revisit plans to renew its Trident nuclear deterrent, a think-tank report says.

Britain cannot afford much of the defence equipment it plans to buy, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) report says.

Its authors include former defence secretary Lord Robertson and the ex-Lib Dem leader, Lord Ashdown.

It comes after news of a £1bn cost overrun on two new aircraft carriers.

The original budget for the two carriers for the Royal Navy was £3.9bn but the BBC has seen a memorandum revealing the programme will come under "severe pressure" because of the cost escalation.

The head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, has previously defended the new carriers from accusations they were outdated "Cold War relics".
His counterpart in the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, had earlier suggested many of the Ministry of Defence's new equipment programmes were "irrelevant" to modern warfare.

Similarly, the IPPR report suggests there ought to be a radical rethink of the way the UK budgets for defence.

Spending on the aircraft carriers, along with the fighters which would fly from them and the destroyers protecting them, should be in the frame for cuts, its report says.

The authors say the aim should be to eradicate nuclear weapons, and there should be renewed debate about the Trident submarine-based missile system.

The government is committed to renewing Trident at an estimated cost of £20bn. The policy is backed by the Tories but opposed by the Liberal Democrats and many Labour backbenchers.

The report's authors also claim that the mission in Afghanistan is on course for possible failure unless it is changed to include a joint civilian-military stabilisation and reconstruction taskforce.

It also draws lessons from the Mumbai attack in India, appealing for new preventative measures in case the UK has to face a terrorist attack at multiple locations in one of its major cities.

That would be a job for strengthened special forces, not the police, the report argues.

There is also a broader appeal for Britain to do more to co-operate with Europe and stop relying on the Americans when it comes to security.

The report says Britain would be deluded to think the US would always help Britain out.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the 180-page document, published after two years of research, would carry weight in Whitehall, given its highly-experienced authors.

As well as Lord Robertson and Lord Ashdown, former chief of the defence staff Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, former UK ambassador to the United Nations Sir Jeremy Greenstock, and former Association of Chief Police Officers president Sir Chris Fox also contributed.