CND: UK living in “fantasy land” regarding defence review

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has responded to a damning parliamentary report of the UK's Strategic Defence and Security Review, saying it showed the government living in a fantasy land, squandering vast sums on 'trophy' weapons systems. UK living in “fantasy land” regarding defence review, says CND 'This report shows that the long history of fantasy policy-making is alive and well at the MoD (Ministry of Defence),” said CND general secretary Kate Hudson. “Whilst planning for the multi-billion pound Trident replacement program was well under way, according to written evidence from the MoD, 'no part of Government had assumed they would pay [for it],' Hudson said. “When the most adaptable assets held by the military - troops which can be deployed for humanitarian work, peacekeeping or other tasks - are being disposed of by the thousand, it is perverse to be squandering billions on nuclear weapons which face no enemy and have no purpose,” she said. In the report, MPs on the Defence Select Committee expressed their concern about military gaps left by last year's defence review and said they were not convinced that the UK Armed Forces will be able to do what is asked of them after 2015, given the current financial climate and the planned drawdown of capabilities. The UK Armed Forces may be “falling below the minimum utility required to deliver the commitments that they are currently being tasked to carry out let alone the tasks they are likely to face between 2015 to 2020 when it is acknowledged that there will be capability gaps,” it said. The report reveals the MoD has massively increased its estimate of the 'gap', which in as yet unpublished evidence it says is 'substantially in excess of £38 billion', with a suggestion their new figure may be upwards of £51.5 billion “As the latest figures show the unfunded black hole in the MoD budget is now a third higher than was thought just last year, now is the time for a formal review of the need for Trident and its replacement,” said Hudson. “If only the MoD would live in the real world, the billions unlocked by its cancellation could leave Britain better defended against threats that actually exist,” she said. “As it stands, huge spending on a useless 'trophy system' is only likely to throw the defence budget further in to crisis. It is already acknowledged that it will cost significantly more than first expected - it seems the sky's the limit with nuclear weapons spending.' CND claims that the £8 billion estimate included in this figure for the next ten years of spending on the Trident replacement program is 'hugely conservative', pointing out that the predicted cost of building the US' first new Trident submarine increased from $9 billion to $11.6 billion in the last year.