MILITARY chiefs came close to running out of ammo, withdrawing ships from the Gulf and grounding war jets in a crisis of underfunding.
New Defence Minister Ben Wallace also revealed the MoD considered pulling out of some Nato commitments too.
3
3
The dangerous overstretch is only ending after Mr Wallace persuaded Boris Johnson to intervene with a £2.2bn cash injection during the Whitehall-wide spending review three weeks ago.
The Cabinet’s new defence supremo lifted the lid on the true state of the nation’s defences in his first interview in the job with The Sun.
Ahead of the start of the Tories’ annual conference in Manchester tomorrow, ex-Scot Guards officer Mr Wallace told The Sun: “I came to a department where I found for decades that we had pushed off budget decisions, while all the time growing our ambitions.
“That had been done by successive governments, where Prime Ministers and some of our military leaders have had bigger appetites than their stomachs.
“That has led to a consistent hollowing out of things that are incredibly vital to the day to day workings of the armed forces – such as maintenance, stocks, buildings, refurbishment of vehicles… everything.”
He explained: “That ultimately leads you to a place where if you stop the music, the whole thing was at risk of us being unable to meet our NATO obligations and to give the right protection in the right place to our country.”
“In practical terms, that would have meant less readiness and less ability to protect our interests, in places like the Straits of Hormuz. Our ships were exhausted.”
Mr Wallace also revealed he discovered a pilot training programme with a backlog of 250 trainees, meaning “we don’t have enough pilots to fly all our planes we’ve been buying”.
He added: “This money will help us fix the problems in that pilot training.”
LOW AMMO
Most alarming of all, Mr Wallace said he also discovered how low the Army’s ammunition stocks had got, as his successors saved cash by not replenishing them.
He said: “They were never critical, but they would have got close to being a real challenge.
“If you don’t have a proper funded plan to make sure that those stocks are maintained, they start to drop below.”
Winning the funding battle with the Treasury was difficult, but Mr Wallace revealed: “Boris came to the rescue. He didn’t have to, but he did.”
The £2.2bn cash injection only lasts until 2020, when Mr Wallace admits the MoD will have to wage the same fight for more money again.
But he says he won a key admission from No10 and No11 that the defence funding crisis must be solved for the long-term then too.
Mr Wallace added: ““There is recognition by Boris Johnson, No10 and the Treasury now that in that we have to think that short termism has actually led to more expensive consequences.
“Long-term financial planning alongside long-term ambitions is the way you get a best value for money, but also a modern 21st century Armed Forces that achieves the security of the country.”
Shameful standards in barracks blocks will also benefit from the new money.
‘NOT FIT FOR PUPOSE’
The defence boss declared: “We have been housing our men and women in dilapidated, not fit for purpose accommodation. This new money is going to be focused often on things like that.”
Mr Wallace also has bold plans to offer service families far better childcare to match the needs of a modern age.
Mr Wallace is the first Defence Secretary to have been a regular serviceman since Harold Macmillan in the 1955.
During his eight years of service, he carried out several tours of Northern Ireland during the Troubles – meaning he knows what it likes to be on the receiving end of bad political leadership.
He added: “The most precious equipment we have to defend our nation are the men and women.
“If we don’t have the men and women with the right skills, with the right morale in our armed forces, we can’t deliver any real defence.
“That’s why as long as I am Defence Secretary, I am determined to not overstretch them, not overspend and to be honest about what we can and can’t do to the rest of government.”
3
