Wargame Articles
Britain's politicians have global ambitions bigger than the defence budget.
Future British security will suffer due to the lack of investment in future weapons systems.
British Defence Spending 2006An occasional series on aspects of contemporary warfare.
The ongoing costs of two concurrent wars is hitting British defence spending. Since 2003, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost £3.6 billion according to an underestimate of the MOD (approx £3.3 billion on Iraq and £333 million in Afghanistan). The cost of the war in Afghanistan is going up as the British involvement increases. Although the costs of the wars have been paid out of a special treasury fund (a 'fighting fund' no pun intended), the MOD is running short of money for long term projects such as the Type 45 destroyers and extra aircraft carriers. The answer has been to cut aircraft and warship maintenance programs, but the long term programs are quietly been delayed to buy things which go bang the British Armed forces need now.
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