Britain to scrap flagship carrier as defense cuts bite

Britain is set to scrap major military assets such as its flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Ark Royal, and a fleet of Harrier jets in a defense review announced Tuesday as part of stinging, across-the-board government cuts.

Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that the carrier is to be decommissioned almost immediately, while a decision on a replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent is also set to be delayed.

In total, the Ministry of Defence is facing cuts of around 8 percent in the defense review.

Cameron also said that by 2015, army numbers would be cut by 7,000 to 95,500; the navy would fall 5,000 to 30,000 and the air force would decrease by 5,000 to 33,000.

However, the premier vowed that there would be "no cut whatsoever" to the level of support for forces fighting in Afghanistan.

The decision comes ahead of a sweeping program of wider reductions in most government departments being unveiled in a comprehensive spending review today.

Cameron's coalition government, which took power in May, is battling to reduce public-sector borrowing from 149 billion pounds ($235 billion) to 20 billion pounds ($31.65 billion) by 2015-16, and many departments are facing 25 percent cuts.

The decision to ax the Ark Royal earlier than the 2014 date originally planned will leave Britain without an aircraft carrier capable of launching jets for around a decade.

The defense review, the first of its kind for 12 years, came a day after the government launched a new national security strategy that highlighted international terrorism and cyber attacks among the biggest threats.

Alex Ashbourne-Walmsley, of military think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told BBC radio that it was a "very curious" decision to scrap the Ark Royal, given the possible need to intervene overseas, as acknowledged Monday.

AFP