Should we have an Emergency Defence Review?

[StefanWolves]

This Libyan conflict (whether you disagree with it or not) has found out David u-turn Camerons pathetic defence budget cuts.

Its costing-

-£40,000 per NIGHT for the pilots of those carrying out the air strikers
-£35,000/£70,000 per 1 hour of Tornado/Eurofighter Typoom flights
-£35,000 per 1 hour for Sentinel surveilance flights
-£1MILLION per tomahawk launched

Davids Camerona cuts the Navy and Air Force are unnacceptable.

In five years time we will have NO
-Tornado Aircraft (being phazed out)
-Harriers (already moth balled)
-No aircract carrier with aircraft (no chance of Ark Royal coming back)
-Possibly no future CVF (future aircraft carrier) if the conservatives have their way
-F35 figters, either that or a SMALL amount e.g. 15.

One thing the Conservatives dont uderstand is that we are an Island, we NEED naval prowess, were a huge part of the UN and Nato, cutting all of our resources and leaving us with not much at all is seriously going to overstretch us and cost us in the long run, its being shown in Libya right now. It would be cheaper if we still had Ark Royal and the Harrier fleet.

Discuss.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I'm not a warhawk and I think we should withdraw immediately out of Afghanistan and Libya .. however, due to the number of islands we posses leftover from the Empire (which still today form a 'mini-Empire' themselves) we need a blue water navy capable of protecting these islands from assault as I very much doubt our leaders would consider or consider threatening the likes of Argentina with a nuclear strike should islands such as the Falklands be invaded and occupied again.

In realistic terms, nobody is going to attack the British mainland at present but what remains of our Empire remains at risk. While we need to cut, there are huge areas of public spending which aren't needed and which dwarf the military budget. On the other hand, the MoD has been so very wasteful these past few years (buying the Eurofighter and European military hardware over American equivelents which were half the price) that I think something should be done there.

The military budget needs a large cash injection, good management and then and only then should we think of scaling down military spending.