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Armed Forces

My Lords, it is 90 years since the Armistice which brought an end to the tragic and needless slaughter of the First World War. It is difficult to argue that the world has learnt the lessons of the futility of war, or has become more civilised. We find ourselves engaged in military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and have troops in the Balkans. The situation in the Middle East seems as intractable as ever. Brutal and oppressive regimes dominate in Burma, North Korea and Zimbabwe; and bloodshed and genocide continue in the Congo and other parts of Africa. Piracy prevails off Somalia; we have serious instability in Pakistan; and the uncertainty over Iran’s nuclear ambitions continues. Meanwhile, many countries are significantly increasing their military spend. China is moving towards developing its first aircraft carrier; India, Japan and Russia are all spending considerably more. By contrast, we have seen a steady reduction in the percentage of gross national product spent on defence—now 2.3 per cent, the lowest point since 1933. We have also seen a steady downgrading of the importance of the Ministry of Defence in the Government, culminating in the part-time appointment of the previous Secretary of State and changed only at the most recent reshuffle. I make no criticism of him, but that is an example of the downgrading of the MoD as an institution. I do not criticise the commitment or integrity of the present defence ministerial team; the blame lies with the former Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister during all his years as Chancellor of the Exchequer. They jointly took little interest in the size, equipment or capability of our Armed Forces, yet had no compunction in ordering them into action in the Balkans, in Sierra Leone, in Iraq and, more recently, in Afghanistan. Some disastrous procurement decisions were taken, such as the one in 2004 to take £1.4 billion out of the helicopter budget. Although it may be necessary, it is rather embarrassing to hear from the Minister this evening that we are scouring the world for helicopters adequately to provide for our forces in Afghanistan. Since the Government came to power in 1997, our regular force numbers have fallen by 12 per cent from 211,000 to 185,000. TA numbers have fallen by 42 per cent from just under 52,000 in 1997 to slightly over 30,000 in 2008. The inadequacy of our Reserve Forces was mentioned by my noble friend Lord Wallace and the noble Lord, Lord Robertson. All aircraft fleets—transport, combat, reconnaissance and air tanker—have already been halved since the end of the Cold War. The 1998 Strategic Defence Review indicated a requirement for 32 escorts, including 12 new Type 45 destroyers. Today, we have only 22 escorts. In the early and mid-1980s, when I was a junior defence Minister, I was criticised when I referred to our force of about 50 frigates and destroyers at sea, rather than a definite 50. I give credit to the Government for significantly improving equipment for our forces in Afghanistan after a poor start, for their recent announcement on the procurement of better protected vehicles and for tackling the backlog of housing maintenance that has developed over the years, but much remains to be done. We on these Benches welcome the decisions on pay, the operational welfare package, the improvements to Wellington Barracks—I look forward to hearing more in future on the £20 million pilot scheme to support home ownership—and, especially, the increases in compensation referred to by my noble friend Lord Burnett. Overstretch has become one of the most used words in the defence vocabulary. It has been suggested that our forces need up to a dozen years of peace to regroup, re-equip and retrain. A recent editorial in the New York Times parallels our situation. Talking about the overstretch of the US army as a result of Iraq, it states: "““The long-term cost in morale, recruit quality and readiness will persist for years. Nearly one-fifth of the troops—some 300,000 men and women—have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan reporting post-traumatic stress disorders””." It was said earlier that the Government are faced with a major funding shortfall of up to £2 billion in the procurement budget, and something clearly has to give. The Government need to take major decisions on the third phase of Typhoon; on whether we go ahead with joint-strike aircraft for our new carriers—and I take the point about the importance of the humanitarian role of our amphibious vessels made by my noble friend Lord Burnett; on the future Lynx—a decision urgently awaited by Westland; and on FRES. The situation in Afghanistan is enormously complex. It is a long haul and, as the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, said, we cannot allow the forces of darkness to prevail. Can the Minister say whether the Americans have requested additional UK forces to support them in any possible surge operation? It seems to me we have to regain the military initiative and get on top of the situation there for there to be serious, long-term dialogue with the Taliban. My view is that the public would be willing to accept an increase in defence expenditure, probably for the first time in many years. We all know the difficult economic situation we are in at present. Nevertheless, we need to look again at the defence spend. I believe we need to look to building up our Army from the current 103,000 service men and women towards the 120,000 mark. At the moment, our military cannot complete all the tasks asked of it. Given that we are so stretched, it is extremely difficult for us to consider participating in any peacekeeping operations that may come about in the short term. The Congo was referred to by my noble friend Lord Wallace and we may be called upon to help in the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. We also need to work much more closely with France and respond in a more positive way to the overtures of President Sarkozy. We have moved a long way from the absurd posturing of the De Gaulle era and I hope the Government will give a real example of working with the French. Perhaps the Minister could refer to that when she winds up. At the last major defence debate in this House on 22 November 2007, the Government was flayed by our former Chiefs of the Defence Staff in an unprecedented way. Since then, the media and general public have come out strongly in support of our Armed Forces, which probably command a greater respect now than ever before. The Command Paper discusses a range of welcome improvements but we can and must do more. We just cannot continue to undertake all the tasks with the resources currently available to our Armed Forces.