Odin’s Eye

[from the April 2013 edition, published March 22]

British Prime Minister David Cameron has again showed his penchant for U-turns and making policy on the hoof by floating a scheme to divert funds from the Department for International Development (DFID, which provides aid to foreign countries) to the Defence budget. Cameron’s idea was that DFID’s ballooning budget should be used to pay for peacekeeping missions - but not for buying weapons - a move which would, however, free some of Defence’s budget to equip the armed forces.

His chosen vehicle for this scheme is said to be the National Security Council, which rules in a loose kind of way over the so-called conflict pool [of cash available for contingencies] which is part-funded by DFID, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office. The conflict pool has already been drawn upon to provide help for anti-government forces in Libya and Syria.

by Francis Beaufort

The general who leads the British armed forces highlighted a chronic shortage of surface warships during a speech at Oxford University. General Sir David Richards was giving the Annual Lecture Address by the UK Chief of Defence Staff, telling an audience of academics, students and other invited guests that one of his main worries is the lack of Royal Navy destroyers and frigates.

It is apparently forcing the RN to divert sophisticated high-end Type 45 destroyers away from their primary role to hunt down pirates. General Richards reportedly remarked: “That can’t be good. We’ve got to sort it out.” He was highlighting a problem with lack of critical mass in the RN that has in recent years seen frigates and destroyers dwindling from 32 (just over a decade ago) to a mere 19 today.