Disarmament Diplomacy
Issue No. 28, July 1998
The UK Strategic Defence Review: Analysis &
Documentation
Introduction
On 8 July, 1998 the British Secretary of State for Defence, George
Robertson, announced the outcome of the Labour Government's
Strategic Defence Review, launched on 28 May 1997. The Review,
intended to examine Britain's defence needs to the year 2015, has
been published as a White Paper with a separate appendix of essays
covering the various issues. After identifying that today there is
"no direct military threat to the United Kingdom or Western
Europe", the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) notes that risks to
international stability are more likely to come from "ethnic and
religious conflict; population and environmental pressures;
competition for scarce resources; drugs, terrorism and crime."
Eight 'core' missions are identified: peacetime security; security
of the overseas territories; defence diplomacy; support to wider
British interests; peace support and humanitarian operations;
regional conflict outside the NATO area; regional conflict inside
the NATO area; and strategic attack on NATO. To deal with the
multiplicity of more diffuse tasks envisaged in the post-Cold War
world, the SDR proposes a reshaping of the British armed forces,
shifting towards greater mobility and rapid response capabilities
and more efficient cooperation (among the forces and jointly with
other countries). On launching the Review, Robertson had already
made it clear that neither NATO nor Britain's possession of the
Trident nuclear weapon system would be questioned, although
changes in role and operations could be considered.
The main focus of the SDR was on force structure, resulting in a
fairly comprehensive set of proposals to rationalise and
re-organise the armed forces, upgrade their equipment and
technology, and increase the importance of combining forces
('jointery' in MoD jargon) and logistics coordination. The aim is
to prepare British forces more efficiently for rapid deployment and
joint actions with other countries, including NATO's combined joint
task forces and UN missions. For the first time, the UK made
'defence diplomacy' one of the core missions, intended to cover
arms control, non-proliferation, outreach, and confidence and
security building measures.
In hardware and personnel terms, the planned configuration of
Britain's forces to 2015 may be summarised as follows (pre SDR
figures/plans in brackets):
- Trident submarines 4 (4);
- Trident missiles 58 (65);
- Maximum nuclear warheads per Trident submarine 48
(96);
- attack submarines 10 (12);
- aircraft carriers 2 very large (3 smaller);
- destroyers/frigates 32 (35);
- roll-on roll-off container ships 6 (2);
- minesweepers 22 (25);
- offensive air support 154 (177);
- C-17 heavy airlift planes 4 extra
- tank regiments 6 larger (8);
- Regular Army 112,300 (108,000)
- Territorial Army 40,000 (56,000).
In addition, the government pledges to go ahead with the
controversial order for 232 Eurofighter aircraft, and will shortly
be bringing into service a fleet of new Apache helicopters,
'smart' weapons and improved intelligence and reconnaissance
equipment. Most importantly, a four-star 'Chief of Defence
Logistics' is appointed to manage logistics across all three
services. It was also decided to form a 400-personnel joint
army/air nuclear, chemical and biological reconnaissance regiment,
based with the Royal Armoured Corps.
The following analyses look at some of the key areas in the
Strategic Defence Review from different perspectives. It is clear
from policy discussions before and after the release of the SDR
that nuclear policy played a rather small part in deliberations. In
view of the interests of our readership, however, Disarmament
Diplomacy has emphasised the implications of Labour's now-open
positions on nuclear policy and arms control.
© 1998 The Acronym Institute.
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