Defence cuts are limiting Britain’s capacity to be “full partner” with America, a former US defence secretary has said.
Robert Gates, who served under George W Bush and Barack Obama, said the “fairly substantial reductions” in spending mean Britain can no longer stand alongside the US as a leading military player.
For decades British Armed Forces have had a so-called “special relationship” with their counterparts across the Atlantic - particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan recently - but Mr Gates’s comments indicate that partnership could be over.
He said America had always been able to “count on” Britain to stand shoulder to shoulder with them militarily, but reductions in spending mean UK forces can no longer offer a “full spectrum” of capabilities on land, in the air, and particularly at sea.
The Army is currently going through sweeping cuts as part of Coalition cost-cutting which will see the loss of 20,000 regulars by 2020, while there are further reductions in spending for the Royal Navy and RAF.
Mr Gates told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: "With the fairly substantial reductions in defence spending in Great Britain, what we're finding is that it won't have full spectrum capabilities and the ability to be a full partner as they have been in the past."
The former US defence chief singled out naval cuts as particularly damaging, noting that for the first time since the First World War Britain does not have an operational aircraft carrier. » | James Edgar | Thursday, January 16, 2914
