{"id":322621,"date":"2017-08-21T19:23:35","date_gmt":"2017-08-21T18:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/britain-splurges-on-warships-subs-drones-but-may-cut-troops-to-plug-30bn-black-hole\/"},"modified":"2017-08-21T19:23:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T18:23:35","slug":"britain-splurges-on-warships-subs-drones-but-may-cut-troops-to-plug-30bn-black-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/britain-splurges-on-warships-subs-drones-but-may-cut-troops-to-plug-30bn-black-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain splurges on warships, subs &amp; drones\u2026 but may cut troops to plug \u00a330bn black hole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>        The British military could see its troop numbers slashed again to fund spending on state-of-the-art warships, submarines and unmanned drones, it has been revealed.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>While Britain has focused on keeping up with global competitors, to boast of its military might, the funding gap in the defense budget has grown into a big black hole.<\/p>\n<p>The generously-named <em>\u201cfunding challenge\u201d<\/em> means the British Army has to find \u00a320 billion (US$25.8 billion) over a decade, to close the gap between what is in the bank and what is being spent.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/398662-army-recruitment-age-veteran\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.08\/thumbnail\/59844b57dda4c816298b4569.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 defenceimagery.mod.uk\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Defense expert Roland Sonnenberg, a senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), <a href=\"http:\/\/pwc.blogs.com\/publicsectormatters\/2017\/08\/uk-defence-addressing-a-funding-challenge-bigger-than-twice-the-size-of-wales.html\">claimed the figure<\/a> is more like \u00a330 billion &#8211; and troops may need to be cut to balance the books.<\/p>\n<p>Sonnenberg claimed the next decade could be <em>\u201cone of the most challenging periods in a generation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThere has always been tension between the cost of defending the UK and its interests versus the budget available,\u201d<\/em> he wrote.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThis tension is now acute and must be addressed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Sonnenberg said measures must be taken, and quickly, to prevent projects having to be scrapped.<\/p>\n<p>Those measures include re-evaluating the cost of equipment.<\/p>\n<p>Sonnenberg\u2019s warning comes just months after the Tories were accused of<em> \u201cleaving Britain defenseless.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>However, within the Army, serving soldiers said government bureaucracy and spending decisions should be addressed.<\/p>\n<p>An Army source told RT UK the government routinely<em> \u201cwastes\u201d<\/em> money.<\/p>\n<p>One example was outsourcing recruitment to a private company, rather than the Army doing it in-house.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cPoliticians insist on ticking boxes and wasting time and money rather than having a fully trained, fully manned army,\u201d<\/em> the source said.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of six years of Tory rule, Army numbers have fallen from 102,000 to just below 80,000 \u2013 the lowest level since the 1850s. The Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy have also been slashed.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JaorpRD-hFU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Conservatives axed 20,000 troops in a bid to save cash in 2010 and have overseen what have been described as <em>\u201cembarrassing\u201d<\/em> cuts to Britain\u2019s forces.<\/p>\n<p>But the latest review of spending, Sonnenberg insisted, could be an opportunity for the UK.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe opportunity to look at numbers of service personnel may be a highly emotive and political point in itself but is worth considering,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOur armed forces are broadly described by the numbers of personnel within them, but the complexities of successful military interventions are more than just that of personnel numbers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe key question here is what does future combat actually look like and can we deliver this properly?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The revelation comes as training courses for new recruits also come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/397326-military-cuts-security-theat\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/img.rt.com\/files\/2017.07\/thumbnail\/5975cffcfc7e93dd528b4567.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9 Nigel Roddis\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Not a single course has hit capacity in two years \u2013 some are taking place with fewer than a quarter of spaces filled.<\/p>\n<p>Some 1,300 spaces at Catterick, North Yorkshire, were left empty on courses intended for 3,984 soldiers.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly half of the 960 places for Catterick\u2019s Guards and Infantry courses between June 2015 and May this year went unfilled.<\/p>\n<p>On one course, there were more than 80 spaces available when it went ahead.<\/p>\n<p>On average, 54 percent of spaces at the Army Training Center were filled.<\/p>\n<p>Phase One training in Pirbright Army Training Center in Surrey was attended at 70 percent capacity.<\/p>\n<p>At the same center, 7,824 places were available on 83 courses.<\/p>\n<p>A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said recruitment levels are <em>\u201cgood\u201d<\/em> and that <em>\u201cthe Army has enough people to perform the operational requirements that help keep Britain safe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/400431-cut-budget-army-recruitment\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The British military could see its troop numbers slashed again to fund spending on state-of-the-art warships, submarines and unmanned drones, it has been revealed. While Britain has focused on keeping up with global competitors, to boast of its military might, the funding gap in the defense budget has grown into a big black hole. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":322622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-322621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}