Almost Official

It can't be long now until we here of the final fate of the harrier's that have been mothballed at RAF Cottesmore. Peter Luff who is in charge of defence equipment, responded to criticism of last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review was defending the cuts to the Royal Navy and the loss of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the loss of 5,000 jobs. 

He is reported as saying that "No-one wanted to get rid of the Harriers and Ark Royal. It was not the decision we wanted to take. But the UK faces a huge financial crisis and cuts had to be made." and that "We will shortly be announcing disposal of the Harriers. That decision has been taken and there will be no backing away from it."

As you can imagine this has disappointed Naval Chiefs who have been expressing concerns about the state of the forces following the cuts and their ability to continue the current operations in Libya. As usual the Government have refused to listen, Peter Luff commenting that conflict in Libya has completely vindicated the decisions taken in the cuts. He believes that the UK has flexible force which has still been able to launch aircraft and play a part in the international effort. It is shame that the people that know about these things are in complete disagreement with the government view of the state of our military forces and what they will be able to do in the future.