\'Major concerns\' over defence cuts: govt report

Cuts to Britain's defence budget could leave its armed forces below the "minimum utility" required to "undertake all that is being asked of them", a government report warns. According to the defence select committee report, published Wednesday, there is "mounting concern" that the loss of aircraft carriers, planes and 30,000 front-line troops could lead to "strategic shrinkage" of the military. "We are not convinced, given the current financial climate and the drawdown of capabilities arising from the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), that from 2015 the armed forces will maintain the capability to undertake all that is being asked of them," said the report. "Given the government's declared priority of deficit reduction we conclude that a period of strategic shrinkage is inevitable." Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition is trying to make government-wide savings, and claimed it was left a 38-billion-pound (61.9 billion dollar, 43.6 billion euro) "black hole" of unfunded defence spending commitments when it took office last May. As part of the eight-percent cuts, the Royal Navy's flagship HMS Ark Royal aircraft carrier has been scrapped along with Britain's fleet of Harrier jets. In a direct attack on the leader, the lawmakers concluded: "The prime minister's view that the UK currently has a full spectrum defence capability is rejected by the committee." The report expressed "major concerns" over Britain's ability to continue to fight effectively in Afghanistan and Libya in light of the severe cuts. Conservative MP and committee chairman James Arbuthnot said: "This is a clear example of the need for savings overriding the strategic security of the UK and the capability requirements of the armed forces." Defence Secretary Liam Fox argued that the review had put the Ministry of Defence "back on a stable footing". "I am pushing through radical reform to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated," he added. Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards added: "We have had to take some tough decisions, but... we will remain a formidable fighting force on the world stage. "We will remain capable of sustaining our operations in Afghanistan and Libya before re-balancing will give us the flexibility to maintain our ability to project power across our spheres of interest," concluded Richards.