THE huge demands being placed on the UK's armed forces were laid bare yesterday in an official report from the Ministry of Defence.
It admitted that the requirements of fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – as well as providing peacekeeping troops elsewhere in the world – meant Britain was not ready to respond to new demands.
Only 56.5 per cent of UK forces are ready to be
deployed – against a 71 per cent target. And this is despite army and RAF personnel being returned to war zones sooner than intended in the so-called "interval harmony" guidelines.
The MoD's spring performance report 2007-8 states that RAF tours of duty should have intervals of "no less than 16 months". But this rule is being broken by quicker than intended redeployments of various units, including Nimrod, Harrier and the joint helicopter command.
Soldiers in the army are meant to average two years between tours but this has been breached for the Infantry, Royal Artillery, Royal Signals and Royal Logistics Corps.
At present, there are 14,410 UK personnel on active duty, including 8,900 in Afghanistan and 4,000 in Iraq. The remainder are serving mainly in Qatar, Cyprus, Kuwait, Oman and Kosovo or are at sea.
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, said the need to make £2.8 billion a year savings while carrying out operations abroad had proved more difficult than anticipated.
Liam Fox, his Tory shadow, said: "Finally the government admits what everyone has known for sometime – that our armed forces are overstretched and we cannot be ready for the full range of potential operations. The planning assumptions will have to be changed … or the government will have to increase the size of the armed forces."
The full article contains 294 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
