LONDON - Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Thursday that defense cuts Britain has undertaken have reduced the country’s capacity to cooperate fully with the United States in conflicts around the world.
“With the fairly substantial reductions in defense spending in Great Britain, what we are finding is they won’t have full-spectrum capabilities andthe ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past,” Gates said, speaking to the BBC.
British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected the claims, saying that Gates “got it wrong,” and stressed that Britain was a “first-class player” in terms of defense.
Britain is among the United States’ staunchest military allies and has one of the most powerful armed forces in theworld, but in recent years it has made a series of cuts to its defense budget as part of the government’s overall reduction in spending. After a major review in 2010, plans were made to reduce the armed forces by 30,000 personnel by 2020. Britain’s only aircraft carrier also was scrapped.
Britain is currently building a new aircraft carrier that it plans to put into service in 2020.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/17/2014