How to lose the battle for Britain

Now that Mr Geoff Hoon has put his Hutton embarrassments behind him and emerged shining like a new pin, some of us hope that he will address his day job. Britain’s defence planning is in a dreadful mess. Unless the Secretary of State acts effectively, the services face a grim future — and they know it.

Curiously enough, the issues have nothing to do with Iraq and the alleged equipment shortcomings which have attracted so many headlines since a critical National Audit Office report was published. It was indeed tragic that Sergeant Steve Roberts lacked the latest model of body armour when he was killed. But in the big picture, the British army fought its Iraq campaign with fewer equipment problems than it has experienced during any war in its history. These are the wrong charges to throw at Geoff Hoon.

The real issues — which amount to a major scandal — concern the continuing funding of the armed forces, amid a grievous current spending gap which the Treasury has no intention of filling; and weapons programmes for the next generation, costing tens of billions of pounds. The National Audit Office revealed last month that the biggest projects are more than £3 billion over budget. Some of these contracts are for systems as relevant to Britain’s 21st-century needs as a fleet of dreadnoughts.

Foremost is the Eurofighter, of which we are committed to buy 232 examples at £80 million apiece. This aircraft is a Cold War interceptor, for which no conceivable rationale any longer exists. What threat, precisely, are Eurofighters going to engage? Will President Bush and the Prime Minister shortly tell us that Osama bin Laden has sneakily acquired Stealth bombers? What will Eurofighters do, beyond provide employment for their pilots and ground staff? I know no one, even in the Royal Air Force, who can offer a credible answer to this question.