Britain no longer has the cash to defend itself from every threat
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dr Fox said the dire state of the public finances meant the Armed Forces could no longer be equipped to cover every conceivable danger.
Since the Second World War, the nation has maintained a force that can conduct all-out warfare, counter-insurgencies such as in Afghanistan or medium scale campaigns like the Falklands or Sierra Leone.
But Dr Fox has given the strongest signal yet that it will have to give up one or more of these capabilities, which have been maintained at the same time as contributing to collective security pacts such as Nato. “We don’t have the money as a country to protect ourselves against every potential future threat,” he said. “We just don’t have it.”
Reading the bolded sentence in light of the preceeding paragraphs is quite sobering. The time is coming when the US will not be able to count on the UK to be as able to be involved in America’s military operations.
More on this topic today:
‘Battle Royal’ as Forces chiefs clash over cuts
Today’s “away-day” meeting will see the RAF under intense pressure to sacrifice some of its fast jets, potentially losing both fast jets and transport aircraft. The Navy might lose control of the Royal Marines as the price of its new aircraft carriers.
It will be very enlightening to see where the UK military ends up capability wise in a couple of years. It might be foreshadowing the future of a reduced American military force as run-away deficits in the US force us to reduce our military too.