[ot] Britain: Army may patrol streets to "confront terror threat"

Subject:	[ot] Britain: Army may patrol streets to "confront terror threat"
Date:	Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:27:28 GMT

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/army-may-patrol-streets-to-confront-terror-threat-1889007.html

Army may patrol streets to confront terror threat

Long-awaited Green Paper foresees new domestic role for Britain's
services, with emphasis on greater co-operation as chiefs face up to
budgetary constraints

By Kim Sengupta, Defence Correspondent

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Sir Jock Stirrup, left, and Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth
PA

Britain's armed forces could be used on a regular basis on the streets of
Britain to confront the threat of terrorism, under the terms of a
strategic defence review announced yesterday.

Two of the six "key questions" to be considered by the SDR will focus on
domestic threats which "cannot be separated from international security",
according to a Green Paper setting out the grounds for a full scale review
to start after the election.

Decisions need to be made on the "balance between focusing on our
territory and region and engaging threats at a distance" and "what
contribution the armed forces should make in ensuring security and
contributing to resilience within the UK".

The paper states: "Stronger, more effective partnership with other
Whitehall departments, the intelligence agencies, police forces and others
at the national level will become even more important to achieving our
security objective."

One proposal due to be considered, according to Whitehall officials, was
the formation of a rapid reaction force which could be deployed to counter
Mumbai-style terrorist attacks and carry out swift operations outside the
country.

On long-term missions overseas the economic circumstances meant that
Britain will have to co-operate more closely with international allies
like France, said the paper. While the US remained Britain's most
important strategic ally, much closer co-operation should take place with
other countries.

"In Europe, the return of France to Nato's integrated military structure
offers an opportunity for even greater co-operation with a key partner
across a range of defence activity" it added.

The main theme of the Paper was "adaptability", imperative due to the
varying demands on limited resources. The 52-page document admitted that
although commanders on the ground in Afghanistan have shown the ability to
adapt rapidly to challenges this had been undermined by the system in
London.

"There is a widely held view within defence that our structures and
processes have hindered strategic adaptation to evolving challenges and
have not been as effective as they should have been in supporting
commanders' innovation on the ground."

The Paper made it clear that the SDR will have to carried out against the
backdrop of the Ł178bn deficit in the public finances. Defence Secretary,
Bob Ainsworth, stressed: "The wider financial context means resources
across government will be constrained. We should not underestimate the
scale of that challenge.

"We cannot proceed with all the activities and programmes we currently
aspire to, while simultaneously supporting our current operations and
investing in the new capabilities we need."

The SDR, the first one in more than a decade, is supposed to take a "root-
and-branch" look at defence policy with the constraint on spending a major
factor. The Ministry of Defence has a Ł35m black hole in its budget.

However, in presenting the Green Paper yesterday Mr Ainsworth stated three
times that he did not expect it to be too "radical". He also said that one
of the most contentious investment in defence, two new aircraft carriers
for the Royal Navy, is likely to go ahead.

Senior officers in the Army, doing the vast bulk of the fighting
previously in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan, have forcefully argued in
private that the carriers were a luxury in the current economic
circumstances and were relics of the cold war in the age of the insurgent.

Mr Ainsworth said yesterday: "The strategic defence review will have to
take a pretty radical direction not foreseen by me in order to suggest
those capabilities will not be required" he said.

"While of course the whole defence is in the review we understand the
commitments we have already made and the likelihood that those will
continue to be a requirement in the future."

The Defence Secretary also confirmed that the Ł20bn updating of the
Trident nuclear programme, another source of debate, will also go ahead.

Conservative defence spokesman, Liam Fox, questioned how much Britain
could afford to rely on European allies such as France. "We also agree
that France and the United States are likely to be our main strategic
partners" he said. "For us there are two tests; do they invest in defence?
And do they fight? Sadly, too few Europeans pass that test."

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Nick Harvey, said the omission of
Trident from the review had left the Green paper "unbalanced". He
continued: "Surely the manner, the scale and the timing of any replacement
of Trident has cost implications for the entirety of the rest of the
defence budget."

The Military Balance, an annual assessment of international defence
published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies yesterday
showed that China and India significantly raised their defence spending in
2009.

India raised its defence budget by 21 per cent following the Mumbai attack
the previous year, while China raised its spending in the field by 15 per
cent.

Šindependent.co.uk