Barely a day seems to go by without news of another British soldier having been killed in Afghanistan. Grief is often swiftly followed by criticism of the UK's military objectives in the battle against the Taliban, and frequently also by concerns raised over the quality and quantity of equipment available to its armed forces.
Although £38 billion ($62.2 billion) sounds like a lot of money, the UK's defence budget for 2009-10 is in fact a little over 5% of total government spending. It also represents just 2.3% of the nation's gross domestic product, almost half the level of 20 years ago. Hardly a reflection of its military's involvement in the toughest fighting in decades, or of a commitment which the Ministry of Defence admits could last for a generation.
In an unusual step, a group involving several of the UK's leading aerospace companies has launched a major assault on their political masters, and are urging the next government to significantly boost its financial commitment to the armed forces. Their message is stark: dig deeper, or risk seeing Britain's influence at the top table of world affairs irreversibly depleted.
The present Labour government has long been accused of not taking defence seriously enough. And it is hard for it to refute this charge, having employed four different defence secretaries within as many years. One even earned the nickname "two jobs", by juggling responsibility for conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq while also overseeing Scottish matters for Westminster.
After overseeing years of military activity in the face of straining budgets, ageing equipment and delayed and sometimes disastrous procurements, the government recently bowed to opposition pressure by committing itself to conducting a new Strategic Defence Review after the next general election.
All three main political parties now share this pledge, but such reviews have traditionally been synonymous with only one thing: swingeing cuts. With some elements of the armed forces already down not only to the bare bones, but well into the marrow, now must surely be the time to reverse this trend. Spend more, but spend wisely, must be the message.
Opponents will say that "fat cat" companies are merely looking out for their own interests through the Defence Industries Council's new call for more money. But their action should also spur public debate on the direction and scale of the UK's future military capabilities and foreign policy objectives, and maintain pressure on their already brow-beaten political servants.
Source: Flight International
