Recession-hit Britain on Tuesday allocated £900 million (US$1.5 billion) for new helicopters and equipment for the war in Afghanistan, but said it would have to close a military base and cut staff to pay for it.
British Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the money, to be spent over three years, would pay for 22 new Chinook helicopters and equipment including body armor, night vision goggles and tactical radios.
It will come from deep cuts in the rest of the defense budget, which is already being tightened as Britain emerges from recession and struggles to reduce a massive debt built up during the financial crisis.
“These decisions have not been taken lightly but these are tough times for everyone in defense and we must ensure we prioritize spending on operations to achieve success in Afghanistan,” Ainsworth said.
Britain’s newspapers welcomed the new hardware for troops in Afghanistan, but urged the government to carry out a full review to determine how Britain clearly sees its role in the world and what it is prepared to spend on defense.
The Daily Telegraph said yesterday in an editorial: “Yesterday’s back-of-the-envelope package of cuts from Bob Ainsworth ... is an object lesson in how not to manage the Armed Forces.”
Defense think tank The Royal United Services Institute professor Michael Clarke said a defense review had not happened in 12 years and was not due until after the general election next year.
“Defense is living through a slow motion road accident while it waits for the political wheel to turn and give it some strategic direction,” Clarke said, writing in the same paper.
The Royal Air Force base at Cottesmore, central England, will be closed as the number of Harrier jets is cut, Ainsworth said.
Two Royal Navy vessels will be withdrawn from service, the Nimrod MR2 spy plane will be withdrawn a year early and the introduction of the latest MRA4 model slowed, while non-essential military personnel will be cut by 2,500.
In addition to the 22 new Chinook helicopters for frontline troops in Afghanistan, which will start being delivered in 2012-2013, Britain will buy an additional C17 heavy lift aircraft for use at home.
Ainsworth said the new Chinooks, to be bought from US aircraft giant Boeing, would boost Britain’s fleet of heavy-lift helicopters from 48 to 70.
“Our forces on the frontline in Afghanistan repeatedly tell me that Chinooks are indispensable on operations,” he said.
Meanwhile, four Afghan police officers were killed by a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan, the latest in a string of deadly attacks against the country’s embattled police force, government officials said yesterday.
The policemen were killed after their car was hit by a roadside bomb on Tuesday night in Rubat-i-Sangin district, north of the city of Herat, the Afghan Ministry of the Interior said.
Also yesterday, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, signed an agreement with Yasouf Nuristani, the governor of Herat province, to lease a hotel to be used as a new US consulate in western Afghanistan. The embassy said the new consulate was expected to open next year and would be in the newly leased property until the US can build quarters of its own.
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