Submarine fleet ‘must double to tackle China’
To face up to threat from China, UK needs to build 19 of the latest class of hunter-killers, experts say
Britain will need to double the size of its attack submarine fleet to challenge China, the Prime Minister has been warned. The UK is building seven Astute-class hunter-killer vessels, which cost £1.3billion each. Defence insiders have said these need to be replaced with up to 19 British-designed next generation submarines, known as the Submersible Ship Nuclear (Replacement), a modified version of the boats being supplied to Australia under the Aukus agreement.
BRITAIN will need to double the size of its attack submarine fleet if it hopes to challenge China, it has been warned.
Currently, the UK is building seven Astute-class hunter-killer vessels, which cost £1.3billion each.
However, in the face of an increasingly aggressive China, defence insiders have said these need to be replaced with up to 19 British-designed next-generation submarines, known as the Submersible Ship Nuclear (Replacement) – a modified version of the boats being supplied to Australia under the Aukus pact.
Rishi Sunak has been in the United States to take part in a three-way summit with Joe Biden, the US president, and Anthony Albanese, the Australian pirme minister, to sign off on the historic Aukus accord to develop conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines for the Australian navy.
Mr Sunak said the Aukus partnership would deliver “one of the most advanced” submarines “the world has ever known”, creating thousands of jobs in British shipyards.
President Biden said the pact is testament to the long-standing ties between the three countries, he said.
Mr Biden also said he will visit Northern Ireland to mark the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, after Mr Sunak previously announced plans to invite him.
The Prime Minister said he will visit Washington DC in June.
Mr Sunak insisted yesterday that Britain was committed to “swift and robust action” to counter any threat to the UK’S national interests from China, as he set out his “refreshed” Integrated Review on British foreign and defence policy.
However, senior Conservative MPS criticised the Government’s stance on China in the Integrated Review, after Mr Sunak stopped short of calling China dangerous, instead referring to Beijing as a “challenge”.
At an event in San Diego, California, Mr Sunak said: “China is a country with fundamentally different values to ours. And it represents a challenge to the world order. And that’s why it’s right that we are alert to that and take steps to protect ourselves, protect both our values, stand up for our values and protect our interests.” Mr Sunak added that the new Integrated Review makes this “crystal clear”.
“I think the actions of the Government over the past few months under my leadership demonstrate that we do take that challenge seriously,” he said, adding that the UK has blocked investment in sensitive sectors such as semiconductors.
Mr Sunak also cited the removal of surveillance technology and the passing of a new law to ensure transparency and accountability for money going into the UK’S higher education institutes.
The Prime Minister added that China was not on a “predetermined course” and that was why he felt engagement with Beijing was “sensible and responsible”.
However, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory party leader, told The Daily Telegraph he felt the Government was “in chaos over their policy”. He stressed: “China is a systemic threat.”
In an address to the House of Commons, Sir Iain said the document’s passages on China had left him “confused as to what the Government’s position actually is”. He questioned Mr Sunak’s description of China as an “epoch defining challenge” and whether the Government actually regarded China as a threat.
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak did hint that he might follow in the US and the European Union’s footsteps by banning the social media app Tiktok on government phones and devices. He said Britain would “look at what our allies are doing” when it came to reviewing the presence of the Chinese-owned videosharing platform on staff equipment.
Washington and the European Commission have already moved to ban the app on devices issued to staff or on personal phones used for work.
Mr Sunak’s suggestion comes after senior backbenchers urged him to follow the example of the US and Brussels. There was further discontent among MPS over the £5billion funding boost pledged to the Ministry of Defence.
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, warned that the UK was operating on a “peacetime budget” as it was “sliding towards a new Cold War”. He said the Integrated Review in 2021 resulted in cuts for the UK’S land, sea and air assets which “many in the House were hoping would be reversed today”.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, a senior Tory MP, asked: “When are we going to see our Armed Forces restored to the critical mass that is capable of deterring the kind of aggression we’re seeing in Ukraine, the kind of aggressive policies we’re seeing from China?”
He added: “Because it seems that the £5billion that is announced today is going to patch up what we should have been spending already, it’s not going to make a huge difference.”
‘When are we going to see our Armed Forces restored to the critical mass capable of deterring aggression’
Ahead of the Budget tomorrow, Rishi Sunak has already announced a major spending commitment. The Armed Forces are to receive a £5 billion boost over the next two years, with a pledge to allocate 2.5 per cent of GDP to defence from 2025, above the Nato target.
Clearly, an increase is better than nothing, but it is not enough. Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, had reportedly been pressing for at least twice this sum and few military analysts think this uplift will even plug existing capability gaps, let alone enable strategic ambitions to be met.
The Prime Minister announced the settlement while on a visit to San Diego, where he met US President Joe Biden and Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese to seal the Aukus pact aimed at deterring Chinese sabre-rattling in the Pacific. It coincided with the publication of an updated UK foreign and security review, taking account of the changed geopolitical landscape brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Aukus programme will receive £3 billion of the additional spending, with the rest spent on replacing weapons sent to Ukraine. This will do little to boost the Army, now at its smallest for 200 years and which Mr Wallace said recently was “hollowed out and underfunded”.
The promise to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence is welcome, but the extra will be eroded by falling output should the economy contract. Experts say 3 or 4 per cent needs to be spent each year. We have a choice as a country: do we spend vast sums on the NHS and welfare programmes or accept that, to defend the realm, cuts need to be made elsewhere? Mr Sunak has chosen a halfway house that has satisfied no one.