The Defence Committee has been told staff were working flat out on the military’s Defence Investment Plan, due to have been published before Christmas, and reports of a funding shortfall were speculation.
The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton KCB, gave evidence to the committee, which includes Barrow and Furness MP Michelle Scrogham.
Sir Richard said that greater volatility and uncertainty had delayed the document and went on to list instability in the Middle East, the threat from Russia and NATO commitments as examples of the increasing demand placed on the UK’s armed forces.
The committee’s chair Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the MP for Slough, asked who had a handle on the plan, which he said appeared to be trundling along.
The defence chief defended progress on the document.
“There’s no point having a defence investment plan that can’t be delivered or is unaffordable,” Sir Richard said.
Reacting to a question from the committee chair about media reports of a further gap in funding for defence projects, Sir Richard dismissed stories as speculation and refused to give any details adding that the cost of programmes hinged on decisions that would be taken by ministers.
He did admit that when it came to preparedness the UK was not as ready as he would prefer but told MPs how he had told recent recruits at RAF Cranwell that they were ‘entering an air force in a context that I have never known with rising defence budgets.’
The committee was also told that 1.4m casualties had been recorded during Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
Politicians also heard that while no plan to cope with casualties resulting from an attack on the UK so far existed work on one was now underway. Resilience was also to be built into infrastructure such as signalling on railways and in providing NHS stockpiles.
“Since the end of the Cold War we have not prioritised those matters so as a consequence governments of many hues has not focused its’ efforts on that kind of plan,” Sir Richard said. “Partly as a consequence of the Strategic Defence Review that is changing.”
