Clark Vasey is a defence policy analyst based in the City.
A recent post on CentreRight by Ridley Grove, suggests that Liam Fox has failed our Armed Forces by not getting a better deal on defence spending from a future Cameron Government. The post references an article from Fraser Nelson, which suggests that the MoD will have to find 20% savings from its current budget after the next General Election. This was the assessment of a report from the Royal United Services Institute published last week. We cannot predict with absolute certainty the size of the defence budget under a Cameron Government, but no one should doubt the scale of the challenge which awaits an in-coming team at the MoD. To suggest that the Liam Fox has failed our Armed Forces before he has even been given the chance to grapple with the problems of the MoD does him and our Armed Forces a disservice.
Over past decade the resources made available to our Armed Forces have not kept pace with the fact that we have called upon them to risk their lives in two major operations since the Strategic Defence Review was conducted in the relatively benign strategic environment of 1998. The biggest failure of the past decade has been the management of the defence budget. The challenge for Liam Fox and his team will be to reign in the spiralling costs and reform the MoD so that it better supports the needs of our Armed Forces.
Perhaps the best estimate of what a potential Conservative Government will inherit when they take up the reigns of the MoD is provided by Bernard Gray, the former Special Adviser to Lord Robertson when he was at the MoD. Mr Gray was given unique access to the department by the former Defence Secretary John Hutton. He found that the defence budget was ‘out of balance’, arguing that the estimated budgets go well beyond the funds being made available by the Treasury. With regard to the major equipment programme Mr Gray found that it was some £35 billion over budget and some five years behind the initial estimates. Perhaps more worryingly, as it points to the extent of the systemic problems within the department, is that the MoD is still ‘wasting’ around £2.5 billion a year through inefficiencies. Mr Gray was also critical, as the National Audit Office has been, of the MoD tactic of delaying projects and pushing back funding within a programme’s life cycle in order to delay spending shortfalls. The tactic does little to improve the delivery of a project and increases the overall project cost over its life cycle.
As the Conservatives’ national security Green Paper published on Friday demonstrates, David Cameron and Liam Fox understand the scale of the challenge that they will face in defence. The MoD’s equipment budget cannot be based on ‘wish lists’ or what we might like it to be were budgets not finite. The MoD is a dysfunctional department and regardless of what additional funds might be made available for the MoD; it is unacceptable that money should be wasted at a time when our Armed Forces are so heavily deployed in Afghanistan. If the Conservatives win the next General Election, Dr Fox and his team will come to power with a clear plan for how to tackle the problems of waste and inefficiency within the MoD. The Strategic Defence and Security Review will allow the in-coming team of Ministers to look at all aspects of MoD activity and implement a holistic approach to reform.
Before we criticise Dr Fox we should consider what it would be like for our Armed Forces if the Conservatives do not win the next election. If in future years the MoD is to get additional funds I can think of no one better in the Conservative Party to fight from them than Liam Fox.
Above all Liam Fox should be judged on how he supports our Armed Forces when in Office.
