Up to date plan on dimension and power of UK armed forces delayed

The launch of an up to date plan on the dimensions and power of the UK’s armed forces has been delayed at a time of mounting value pressures, Sky News understands.

A defence minister, James Cartlidge, advised MPs final month the goal was to publish the defence command paper “refresh” by the tip of June.

But a number of sources now say the timeline has slipped and the doc is not going to be launched till after the UK and its NATO allies meet for a significant summit in Lithuania in mid-July.

A lot of sources mentioned the delay was brought on by bureaucratic and logistical causes quite than something extra critical, with it taking longer than anticipated to make sure related ministers or chiefs have been out there to learn and talk about drafts and implement any modifications.

“I would not read too much into it,” one defence supply mentioned.

Other sources, nonetheless, mentioned – away from any bureaucracy-induced delays – the method of assessing the affordability of the Ministry of Defence’s ambitions to rework the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force over the approaching decade had thrown up very robust questions on what capabilities might need to be scrapped to make the plan inexpensive.

There is a rigidity between the quick have to unencumber money to rebuild the military given Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and committing huge sums to main long-term programmes to resume the UK’s nuclear deterrent; construct a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines with Australia; and create next-generation fight jets in an settlement with Japan and Italy.

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, secured an extra £5bn for the armed forces over two years in Rishi Sunak’s first finances as prime minister in March.

But this enhance – whereas welcomed – was lower than half the quantity wanted. In addition, many of the more money – £3bn – was earmarked for the UK’s nuclear weapons enterprise, whereas many of the relaxation was to be spent on replenishing stockpiles of ammunition after the navy gave a lot of its provides to Ukraine.

A delay in saying the outcomes of the up to date defence command paper might save the UK the embarrassing spectre of speaking robust on defence on the worldwide stage on the NATO summit in Vilnius on 11 and 12 July, having simply introduced plans to chop its personal capabilities even additional at residence.

Another doable consequence is {that a} real refresh is deemed too tough given what the spending challenges would possibly imply when it comes to curbing ambitions. That could lead on defence chiefs to water down the content material by not specifying precisely how they’ll ship their plans.

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Such a transfer would knock the actually robust selections concerning the future form and dimension of the navy again till after the following common election.

The replace to the command paper is a follow-on piece of labor from a sweeping refresh of UK defence and safety police that was unveiled by the prime minister three months in the past.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence mentioned: “We will set out the future vision and priorities for our Armed Forces in the coming weeks through our updated Defence Command Paper.”