{"id":1021,"date":"2016-06-29T11:39:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T11:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2016-06-29T11:39:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T11:39:43","slug":"eu-referendum-defense-spending-cuts-expected-in-wake-of-brexit-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2016\/06\/29\/eu-referendum-defense-spending-cuts-expected-in-wake-of-brexit-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"EU REFERENDUM : DEFENSE SPENDING CUTS EXPECTED IN WAKE OF BREXIT VOTE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HMS-Queen-Elizabeth-Masthead\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Robert Fox<\/p>\n

Source : Evening Standard<\/p>\n

Defence spending and planning is now expected to come under severe pressure as a result of the Brexit vote, with a growing possibility of cuts and a new review once a new government is installed in the autumn.<\/p>\n

Defence and security featured episodically in the Brexit debate, mostly in issues such as an EU European army and the need for more security forces for stopping illegal migrant trafficking.<\/p>\n

Now the slide of the pound against the dollar will mean a number of big defence programmes will have to be scrutinised. \u201cConsidering that about 40 per cent of the big defence programmes are tied to the dollar, they are going to have to think hard,\u201d says the pre-eminent independent analyst Francis Tusa.<\/p>\n

Major aircraft programmes like the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II for the aircraft carriers and plans for the upgrade and replacement of the Trident nuclear deterrent system will be under examination.<\/p>\n

This week the government is due to sign the contract to purchase nine P8 Poseidon torpedo-carrying maritime patrol aircraft from Boeing in the United States. \u201cWith the slide in the pound, the whole package could now cost in the region of \u00a34 billion,\u201d says Tusa, publisher and editor of the renowned independent Defence Analysis review.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is really very expensive \u2013 particularly as there will be very little UK employment involved.\u201d The P8 is to plug the gap after the cancellation of the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft programme in David Cameron\u2019s first defence review of October 2010.<\/p>\n

Recently French, Dutch and other allied aircraft have had to be called in to track Russian submarines round British coasts \u2013 because of the capability gap left by the absence of the RAF\u2019s Nimrods.<\/p>\n

The MoD took the unusual course of placing the order directly with Boeing, without running a full competition. Cheaper alternatives are available to the P8 such as Airbus C295 turboprop, which is partly British built.<\/p>\n

Even before Brexit there was a growing belief that the defence budget — at roughly \u00a334 billion a year — was overstretched, and would need revising.<\/p>\n

Large naval building programmes such as the two aircraft carriers now being completed at Rosyth and the requirement for a new frigate, the Type 26, currently costed at \u00a3650 million each, are coming under pressure \u2013 the initial plan for 13 of the new frigates has now been cut to eight.<\/p>\n

This autumn the government was due to sign initial contracts for the main building phase for the four large submarines and new warhead for the Trident nuclear ballistic missile programme. This has now been blown off course by Brexit and may not take place till next year as Trident renewal will have to be debated and approved by parliament.<\/p>\n

Crispin Blunt, chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons recently published his estimate that the Trident renewal programme could cost \u00a3182 billion at today\u2019s prices for a 32 year programme beginning in 2028 \u2013 the date the present Vanguard nuclear submarines are due out of service.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that price, I think it\u2019s pretty unaffordable,\u201d Blunt has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Fox Source : Evening Standard Defence spending and planning is now expected to come under severe pressure as a result of the Brexit vote, with a growing possibility of cuts and a new review once a new government is installed in the autumn. Defence and security featured episodically in the Brexit debate, mostly… Continue reading EU REFERENDUM : DEFENSE SPENDING CUTS EXPECTED IN WAKE OF BREXIT VOTE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[154,834,709,833,835,831,494,832,680,243],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security-and-strategy","tag-boeing","tag-brexit","tag-eu","tag-foreign-affairs-committee","tag-lockheed-martin-f-35-lightning-ii","tag-p8-poseidon","tag-rosyth","tag-trident-nuclear-ballistic-missile-programme","tag-type-26","tag-united-states","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1023,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions\/1023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}