The British army is preparing for a serious beating … budget

(BRUSSELS) This is the biggest loss the British Army has suffered in years. The plan concocted by the coalition government (liberal-conservative) aimed at redressing the public accounts (£155 billion deficit) will inflict on the British armed forces more than a severe correction, a radical slimming cure. We are no longer in the realm of small short-term measures. It is a question of operating a real change of strategic focus.

Painful bill to mop up

It was also a campaign promise (1). The bill left by Labor is around £72 billion (i.e. two budget years), it is explained on the government side, and requires decisive action. The principle defended by Defense Minister Liam Fox is that the British army can no longer afford to do tomorrow what it did yesterday.

The cut is all the more drastic as the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) obtained during an arbitration of the Prime Minister that if the program
of the Trident would be made, it would be supported by the budget of the Ministry of Defense (and not, as was the rule, by the general budget). Particularly ironic, the Daily Telegraph (close to the conservatives) explains that the army will lose its "big boy toys - fast jets, tanks, all-singing and dancing warships". Couldn't be more illustrative. And it might give some ideas here or there...

By the end of August, a plan will be presented to the National Security Council, which will be responsible for specifying it. And the extent of the cuts will be announced to Parliament as part of the strategic review initiated under the previous government.

The RAF clink glasses, the Tornado in early retirement, the Typhoon planed, the Airbus A400M saved.

First victim of the cuts: the Royal Air Force, which will return to a format that it had not known since the beginning of the other century, it is said on the other side of the Channel. She should lose nearly 300 planes returning to a force of about 200 planes, according to our British colleagues, and a sixth of her men (7000). The fleet of 120 bombers Tornado will go down the drain. They had to be revised to last until 2025. Done! = £7,5 billion saved. The number of fighter jets Eurofighter Typhoon decreases by 40% (it will go from 160 ordered to 107 = £1 billion. The surveillance aircraft project Nimrod MR4 - repeatedly delayed - is in the hot seat. On the other hand, the program Airbus A400M passes without incident the budgetary grill since the British should confirm the 22 planes recorded in Palma de Mallorca (2). They are intended to replace the entire fleet of 36 Hercules (exhausted by ten years of intensive engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan).

The Royal Marines merged with the Paras

The Navy is no exception. She should contribute with 2 submarines, 3 amphibious ships, 100 senior officers and 2000 sailors. As for the army, it will see its fleet of armored vehicles (about 10.000 today) decrease by 40%. And a brigade of 5.000 men will be eliminated after 2015 (the date scheduled by the Cameron government for the final withdrawal from Afghanistan). In the crosshairs, the 7th Armored Brigade or the 20th Armored Brigade, stationed in Germany. The infantry battalions will be tightened, going from 600 men to 750 (one of the lessons of Afghanistan).

Last but not least, the elite body of the Royal Marines could leave the Navy to join the earthlings and be merged with the parachute battalions to form a single unit... Shocking!

Industrialists asked to tighten their belts

The troops are not alone in toasting. Industrialists too. The minister, Liam Fox, has already announced the content to the defense industry. You're going to have to tighten your belt. A few contracts, based on a public-private partnership, are in the crosshairs (there is talk of a cut of at least £20 billion): the replacement of "search and rescue" helicopters, granted to a private operator by the the previous Labor government (3), but not very popular with the Conservatives, is thus compromised, as is the Defense Academy; the in-flight tanker maintenance program — 14 Airbus A330s — should only save lives thanks to the engagement in Afghanistan.

(1) Read: With the Brits it's going to "move"!

(2) Read: The "final details" to be settled for theAirbus A400M (shift)

(3) Read: The British privatize Search and Rescue at sea

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)