Europe is costing us a bomb

The threat to our national security has seldom been greater. Not only are historic regiments being scrapped — or amalgamated — but the fundamental reorganisation of armed forces now under way is likely to undermine the special relationship with the United States, and thus a key element in our defence strategy.

There is, of course, nothing wrong in principle with the reorganisation: it has been embarked on to accommodate a technological revolution in warfare. This revolution is as profound as the switch from horse to tank. The term for the new military technology is ‘netcentric warfare’ and it aims to meld high-tech weaponry with the power of computers, satellites and advanced digital communications. It will create units of unprecedented capability, refining and developing the ‘shock and awe’ strategies pioneered by the US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the second Iraqi war.

There is also, however, a hidden political agenda here, and it is that which threatens the special relationship.