Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, has announced deep cuts in military personnel and equipment to fund a £900 million boost for the Afghanistan campaign. The immediate economic trade-off sounds reasonable enough if you say it quickly. £1 billion of new helicopters (eventually) for Afghanistan has to be balanced by over £1billion of cuts elsewhere in the defence budget. Few would disagree that Afghanistan cannot become a bottomless pit of defence expenditure.  Read more... (480 words, 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

The decision means cuts in the RAF, including Harrier and Tornado fighters being scrapped.

Britain‘s ability to defend itself from attack has been called into question after deep cutbacks to the Armed Forces were announced to pay for the war in Afghanistan. Critics including former RAF chiefs say the cuts in fast jets will make Britain more vulnerable to attack from modern states with airpower.

But some analysts say that not only can Britain no longer afford to be a premier-league military power, there is also less need for fighter jets in a modern military context – future conflicts are likely to be low-level clashes between smaller groups and not traditional state-to-state warfare.  Read more... (167 words, 1 image, estimated 40 secs reading time)