The Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK’s military capabilities are “just not good enough” as he defended £500 million of cuts.
Healey yesterday announced that a series of projects would be scrapped in a bid to save money.
Appearing before the Defence Select Committee this morning, Mr Healey said: “Our task now is to plot a path that means that we, as I started to do yesterday, can get a grip of Ministry of Defence budgets, we can make the decisions that are long overdue to decommission outdated equipment because our forces deserve better equipment to do their job better.
“And because as I said to begin with, the rapidly changing nature of warfare that Ukraine tells us and amplified by the accelerating development of technology means that the sort of capabilities in large part that we have are just not good enough for the future.
“And when we work with allies we have to make sure that our UK contribution isn’t just a major contribution to the collective deterrence and strength of our alliances but is also part of the leading edge that sees us setting the pace of some of the necessary transformations.”
Elsewhere during the session, Mr Healey would not set a timeline for hitting 2.5% of GPD on defence spending.
He told MPs: “Our commitment is that we will set a clear path to 2.5% of GDP on defence.
“The Prime Minister has been clear actually since the first week when he and I were in Washington together at the 75th Nato summit when he said strategic defence review first, 2.5% to follow.”
Mr Healey also refused to confirm reports that British-made Storm Shadow missiles had been fired by Ukraine into Russia.
Russia’s military said it has shot down two of the long-range missiles following reports that debris from the weapons had been discovered in the country’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine.
Asked to confirm reports Storm Shadow had been used by Ukraine, the Defence Secretary said: “I won’t be drawn on the operational details of the conflict.
“It risks both operational security and in the end the only one that benefits from such a public debate is President Putin.”
It comes after Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge slammed defence cuts announced by the government as “extraordinary”.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “Everyone watching this would be scratching their heads. It’s, ‘hold on a minute’.
“We’re talking about a war in Europe, the very aggressive situation we face from Russia and, by the way, the Middle East. Our own ships have been in action in the Red Sea because of the action of the Houthis.
“In a situation like that, how extraordinary to be launching huge cuts to our defence capability.
“I do feel that this is terrible timing, but I’m bound to say, right back in July after the election, when I became Shadow Defence Secretary, I spoke in the first major debate, what we call the King’s Speech debate, and I said then if Labour didn’t set a clear pathway to 2.5% as a matter of urgency, they would have to make immediate cuts to defence.
“I said that, and that’s now happening because they’re stalling on 2.5%. And it means inside the MoD, where I’ve been, I’ve been in there, when they’re looking at the figures in great detail, they need to have a multi-year plan in order to be able to procure at pace and scale, whereas instead, we’re scaling back by cutting these capabilities, I think, to the wrong decision.”
