Friday, July 31, 2009
Britain will today sign the order for the third tranche of the Eurofighter Typhoon, but it may only need around half of the total order, the outgoing head of the RAF has said.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy has claimed in an interview that only around 120 of the 232 plane order was needed because the planes were so adaptable.
With the defence budget facing a £2bn cut next year and a £1.1bn deficit at the moment, the focus on procurement has shifted to current operations, making projects like the Typhoon more susceptible to cuts.
It is not clear if Britain will actually follow through with Sir Glenn's claims. There are plans to sell off 72 of the 88 planes in the third tranche to Saudi Arabia, but that would still leave around 160 Typhoons in operations. To date there have been no known discussions about selling off 40 additional planes.
Saudi Arabia has expressed an interest in buying additional Typhoons, but these discussions are only preliminary given the fact that the first order has yet to be completed.
Sir Glenn has been a strong opponent of cuts to the RAF procurement budget, often creating disagreements with the other services in the process.
Entering the dispute over helicopter shortages, he admitted that more aircraft could save lives but that they were not the universal solution to the growing casualties.
"More helicopters are needed and that's exactly what we're doing," he asserted to Sky News.
"The other thing which everybody needs to understand is first of all helicopters are not the complete panacea, you still have to have people travelling by road."]
Sir Glenn is retiring later this summer and will be replaced by Air marshal S G Dalton.
The deal to purchase the 88 planes was signed off by the MoD today.
Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Willie Rennie called the decision "awlful."
"This awful deal is a betrayal of our frontline troops. It is a millstone around the MoD's neck.
"Troops will find it hard to believe that the Government is pressing ahead with ever greater numbers of Cold War jets when it is transport aircraft, especially helicopters, that are so badly needed right now.
"The dire terms of the Eurofighter contract are well-known, but the Government should have pressed harder for a better deal. Faced with a brutal conflict in Afghanistan, it is the lives of our brave service men and women that must come first.
"For too long, this Government and its Tory predecessors have failed to match defence spending with the needs of the people we ask to do the fighting.
"This perverse set of priorities must be changed if we are to have any chance of properly equipping our troops to fight today's conflicts," he said. |