London, January 09: Britain’s armed forces need more flexibility to cope with missions beyond Afghanistan, the head of the country’s Royal Navy said on Friday and called for greater clarity on planned defence budget cuts.
After the United States, Britain has the second largest contingent of forces deployed in Afghanistan to help fight the Taliban and train Afghan forces, but domestic support for the war has faded over the last year with the mounting death toll.
Admiral Mark Stanhope said that while Afghanistan was Britain’s main military effort at present, it was “only a singular part of what we need defence forces for”.
“I absolutely support the current defence and security interests of the nation are focused on success in Afghanistan,” he told Reuters in an interview. “But that does not mean all the other problems have gone away.”
Stanhope, who took the helm as Britain’s First Sea Lord last year, said “you have got to have forces which are flexible enough to swing from one crisis to another”.
“We have never really been able to shape ourselves perfectly to deal with the next crisis — they have come out of the blue.”
British naval staff in land-locked Afghanistan have included royal marines, naval air squadrons and helicopters and logistical, medical and engineering personnel.
“This time last year 30 percent of the manpower in Afghanistan was navy and in about 12 months time it is going to be the same again,” Stanhope said. “The navy is there in some force all the time.”
Analysts say Britain’s armed forces face a challenging future against a backdrop of expected budgetary cuts due to the country’s soaring budget deficit — set to top 12 percent of gross domestic product this year.
Britain will hold an election this year, with the opposition Conservatives expected to end 13 years of Labour rule, and Stanhope said the next government would need to be clear “what they want in defence and security terms”.
“Everyone keeps talking about cuts, the government must decide what that resources box is against this aspiration that they set,” he said.
A government-commissioned report said last year Britain wastes up to 2.2 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) a year because of over-ambitious defence projects getting out of control.
Stanhope said the military had to look at budgetary constraints and how “we deliver our business”.
“We have got to look at ever greater efficiency,” he said.
–Agencies