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Defence strategy is 'worrying': Farage

Friday, 8th July 2011

UKIP has reacted angrily to a warning from the Whitehall spending watchdog that Ministers have failed properly to understand the risks entailed in their decision to leave Britain without an aircraft carrier for almost a decade.

The National Audit Office said changes to the carrier programme in the Government's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) had created "significant levels of operational, technical, cost and schedule uncertainty".

"The risk of delaying the completion of an aircraft carrier until 2020 so that French aircraft can use it shows the worrying direction which our Defence Strategy is heading," said UKIP LEader Nigel Farage.

"Instead of hitching our success to France we should be concentrating on ensuring we have the right equipment and personnel.

"Libya showed the fiasco which happens when we don't have the aircraft carrier facilities and yet we spend unnecessary millions on a conflict which doesn't concern us whilst leaving this country with a hole in its defences.

"It's clear that the government need to rethink their priorities: instead of sending our troops on further unnecessary missions whilst cutting their budgets, we should be looking at ensuring they are properly funded and slashing state spending elsewhere."

In a highly critical report, the NAO warned there were "major risks" surrounding its plans to reconstitute a carrier strike force from 2020 onwards.

It said the Ministry of Defence will not have "matured its understanding" of the consequences of its decisions for another two years, with the final cost of the programme now set to exceed £10 billion.

The NAO also disclosed that military chiefs had recommended axeing the carrier programme altogether in favour of keeping more surface ships, such as frigates and destroyers.

However they were overruled by the MoD on the grounds that it would have been "unaffordable" in the short-term due to the cancellation costs, even though it would have led to "significant" medium-term savings.

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