Britannia Radio

NEWS RELEASE Visit the UKNDA website, www.uknda.org

11 June 2012

DEFENCE CUTS WILL 'CASTRATE' BRITISH FORCES

Thousands of redundancies in the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force - to be announced tomorrow (June 12) by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond - will leave Britain's Armed Forces 'castrated' and unable to protect either the nation's global interests or to guarantee the security of the homeland, according to the UK National Defence Association (UKNDA).

The UKNDA, which was formed in 2007 to oppose the then Labour Government's 'chronic under-funding' of the Armed Forces, believes that the present Coalition Government's Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 (SDSR) was a Treasury-driven review which failed to take sufficient account of the requirements of Britain's already over-stretched Armed Forces. The latest cuts means thousands of redundancies across all three Services.

UKNDA director Andy Smith said: "The Coalition is castrating our Armed Forces. The Defence Secretary claims that the cuts will not harm Britain's military capabilities but nothing could be further from the truth. Our ability to project power internationally has been massively reduced by the SDSR and the extent of the latest cuts means we can no longer even guarantee the security of our own people in the British Isles or our overseas territories.

"Thirty years ago this week, on 14th June 1982, British forces liberated the Falklands. If Argentina invades again we could not hold or retake the Falklands this time. The British campaign in 1982 was a combined sea, land and air operation, and even this was 'a close run thing'. Now, post-SDSR, we are simply no longer able to mount such an operation. The Secretary of State should acknowledge this fact. Britain is no longer a credible global military power."

-ENDS

UKNDA Chief Executive Officer, Cdr John Muxworthy RN, on 07721 624980, email ceo@uknda.org.

Or visit the UKNDA website, www.uknda.org