Russia risk sparks Forces funds plea
Warning over ‘black hole’ in finances
MILITARY: Britain’s Armed Forces need a significant hike in funding to meet the resurgent threat from states like Russia and fill existing “black holes” in their finances, the Commons Defence Committee said . It urged the Government to start the process of moving defence spending up from two per cent to three per cent of total GDP.
BRITAIN’S ARMED Forces need a significant hike in funding to meet the resurgent threat from states like Russia and fill existing “black holes” in their finances, a new parliamentary report has said.
The report from the Commons Defence Committee said the Government should start the process of moving the level of defence spending up from two per cent to three per cent of total GDP.
A cash injection on this scale would equate to additional funding of about £20bn a year and bring investment in defence to levels similar to those seen between the end of the Cold War and the mid-1990s.
In its report, entitled Beyond 2 Per Cent, the committee warned that failure to finance the military on a sustainable basis makes it “very difficult” to implement a long-term strategy for Britain’s defence needs.
A new settlement providing long-term strategic and financial stability is the “only solution” at a time when the UK faces a renewed threat from Russia, as well as increasing challenges from terrorism, extremism, cyberWilliamson warfare and the erosion of the rules-based international order, said the cross-party committee.
The report comes weeks ahead of the expected release of highlevel findings from the Ministry of Defence’s Modernising Defence Programme (MDP).
The committee congratulated Defence Secretary Gavin for extracting military spending from the remit of the Government’s National Security Capability Review (NSCR).
The NSCR’s fiscally neutral nature risked deep cuts in parts of the Armed Forces – such as the potential loss of the assault ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark – and created the “perverse situation” that a review prompted by intensified threats could result in reductions in capability.
The “bold step” of establishing the MDP should allow Ministers to deliver “the force structure necessary to meet strategic objectives rather than one that merely fits within straitened financial parameters”, said the report.
The Armed Forces that emerge from the MDP must be supported by a “robust and sustainable financial settlement, which is not reliant on loose projections and unrealistic so-called efficiency targets to make the numbers add up”.
An MoD spokesman said: “The UK maintains the biggest defence budget in Europe, we have been clear we will continue to exceed Nato’s two per cent spending target. The Defence Secretary launched the Modernising Defence Programme to strengthen our Armed Forces in the face of intensifying threats.”