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19 May 19. Big shipbuilders pull out of £1bn MoD support-vessel shortlist. Blow for UK defence department as Italian and Korean yards withdraw from tendering. Two of the world’s biggest shipbuilders have pulled out of the competition to build three new support vessels for the Royal Navy in what will be seen as a blow to the Ministry of Defence’s plans to open it to international tender. Italy’s Fincantieri and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) of Korea were among five yards shortlisted in December by the MoD to compete for the £1bn contract but have now withdrawn, several people familiar with the process confirmed. Their withdrawal leaves just three bidders: Spain’s Navantia, Japan Marine United Corporation and a consortium dubbed Team UK, comprised of Britain’s main shipbuilders, BAE Systems, Babcock International, Cammell Laird and Rolls-Royce. Signalling the possibility of an even bigger blow to the competition, two people close to the process told the Financial Times of a debate within Team UK about whether the consortium should stay in. The commercial terms and conditions of the competition are understood to require bidders to put in significant funding in advance — a requirement that would help those bidders with access to government financing. A third person, however, played down the suggestion that the consortium might withdraw. The competition for the three Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships has been controversial from the start with the MoD coming under fire over its decision to put the contract out to international tender amid rising fears of job losses at British shipyards. Ministers have repeatedly insisted they are required by EU rules to procure the vessels through international competition, since they have not classified them as warships — a military category that provides an exemption from European competition regulations. Julian Lewis, chairman of the Commons defence select committee, has strongly criticised the decision not to use the warship classification, warning that it undermined the government’s national shipbuilding strategy, which seeks to create a steady supply of work for British yards.
Recommended UK defence spending MoD urged to ‘scale back’ spending to plug £15bn shortfall Unions have said building the FSS ships in the UK could help bridge a gap in demand at yards such as Rosyth where work on the second new Royal Navy aircraft carrier is coming to an end. The committee intends to question Stuart Andrew, minister for defence procurement, on the issue at a hearing on Tuesday.
It has pointed out that Italy and France classify their equivalent ships as warships and follow a single-source procurement process. A spokesman for Fincantieri confirmed the company had withdrawn from the competition, citing “a number of considerations”. He added, however, that the MoD had “asked us to consider a new set of information that is going to [be] provided in the coming days”. “Fincantieri is waiting for such a document that will be carefully considered,” he said. DSME was not immediately available for comment. The MoD said it declined to “comment on speculation”. It added that the “Fleet Solid Support competition remains ongoing, with tender returns due in late July 2019”. Any decision to withdraw from the competition is a matter for each tenderer.” At about 40,000 tonnes each, the three ships will support Britain’s aircraft carrier fleet with provisions and munitions. The final decision regarding the winning bid will be made in 2020. Terms and conditions will be subject to change up until the contract is awarded and will be common for all bidders. (Source: FT.com)
20 May 19. Thousands More UK Jobs At Stake From ‘Crucial’ Shipbuilding Contract Than Previously Thought, Says Union. ‘No-brainer’ for new Defence Secretary to place £1bn Fleet Solid Support order in the UK, as Ministry of Defence’s own analysis says contract could support up to 16,400 jobs
GMB, the union for shipbuilding workers, has revealed that keeping a crucial £1 billion order for new military support ships in the UK could support up to 16,000 jobs – according to Ministry of Defence documents.
The analysis of government shipbuilding spending and prosperity, which was obtained by GMB under the Freedom of Information Act, suggests that £1 billion spent on the Fleet Solid Support order could support between 11,600 and 16,400 jobs. [1]
These figures are higher than the union’s ‘cautious’ estimate of 6,700 jobs, which was calculated on a different basis. [2]
The news comes ahead of defence questions in the commons today [Monday] while tomorrow Defence Procurement Minister, Stuart Andrew, faces MPs on the Defence Select Committee. Meanwhile just days ago the All Party Parliamentary Group on Shipbuilding and Ship Repair urged the government to keep the order in the UK. [3]
The new Fleet Solid Support ships are needed to service the UK’s £6.3 billion Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and their strikeforce of new F-35 fighter planes.
Despite the fact the ships are exempt from EU procurement rules – and the French Government recently awarded a similar order to French shipyards without a bidding process [4] – the Ministry of Defence has up until now insisted on running a full international competition.
However, the new Defence Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is reportedly considering a change in approach. [5]
Shipbuilding and ship repair employment in Great Britain has fallen from an estimated 122,200 in 1981 to under 32,000 in 2016 – threatening the UK’s sovereign defence manufacturing capability [6].
Ross Murdoch, GMB National Officer and CSEU chair, said:
“The thousands of UK jobs at stake – not to mention the wider benefit to the economy – make this decision a no brainer for the new Defence Secretary, and we cautiously welcome reports that she is willing to look at this issue again.
“Ministers are not bound by normal EU rules on competitive tendering when it comes to military ships, so Penny Mourdant doesn’t have to worry about that either.
“We have a highly skilled shipbuilding workforce in the UK that is more than capable of making these ships at a fair market price.
“We can’t let our proud shipbuilding tradition be sold down the river if the work goes to artificially subsidised international competitor shipyards instead.
“In a year which has seen Appledore close and hundreds of jobs shed at Rosyth Cammell Laird, this is an easy way to keep Britain’s shipbuilding industry afloat.”
17 May 19. Orban says he discussed missiles and natural gas with Trump. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday said he had discussed the purchase of mid-range air defence missiles at a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
In the first bilateral meeting between the two leaders, Trump praised the Hungarian leader for his tough stance on immigration, calling him his “twin”.
Orban said military cooperation was paramount and that Hungary, whose economy has been growing faster than most others in Europe, can now afford to recreate a potent military force.
“There are parts of military development in which we count on the Americans,” Orban told state radio.
“Critical infrastructure must be protected in case of a military attack, and Hungary’s capability in that regard is incomplete. We need mid-range air defence missiles here. The legal procedure to acquire them is proceeding apace.”
U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Cornstein told the Hungarian news web site 444.hu that he and a Hungarian government representative had visited arms makers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin on the sidelines of Orban’s visit.
Orban, whose close ties with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia and China have drawn criticism from international partners, and especially Washington, said he wanted to build better ties with all major powers.
“We cooperate with the Chinese and the Russians as well as the Americans,” he said. “To be sure, with them (the Americans) we are in a military alliance, therefore those ties are stronger.”
But he said to define Hungary’s foreign policy as dutifully belonging to some alliance rather than seeking to defend its own interests was a “distorted” view.
He added that he had asked Trump to help start production of natural gas under the Romanian section of the Black Sea, which will be done with participation from Exxon, to provide the only practical alternative to Russian gas.
“Diversification is plausible if the U.S.-Romanian cooperation happens quickly,” Orban said. “I urged the president to help make that happen.”
Senior U.S. lawmakers criticised Orban’s visit to the White House last week, blaming him for a “downward democratic trajectory”. (Source: Reuters)
16 May 19. Unease as Norway Admits F-35 Bill May Prove Too Large for Armed Forces to Handle. Oslo’s decision to update its air fleet with F-35 fighter aircraft has been billed the single largest defence procurement in Norwegian history, but has run into one problem after another. Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen’s admission that the bill for the 52 F-35s might be shared with branches outside the defence budget has triggered fears that it may compromise welfare and pensions, the Norwegian daily Klassekampen reported. As was previously reported by the newspaper Bergens Tidende, the total cost of Norway’s new F-35 fleet could exceed initial calculations by as much as NOK 16bn ($1.8bn). This sum includes associated costs, including weapons and the construction of air bases at Ørland and Evenes. When the Norwegian parliament voted in favour of the aircraft, NOK11bn ($1.25bn) was set aside in a so-called “uncertainty provision” in addition to the stated objective. As long as the extra expenses do not exceed NOK 11bn, the parliament is not required to re-examine the combat aircraft case.
However, the parliament did not specify how the potential extra expenses shall be covered. While the tacit understanding is that these costs shall be covered by the armed forces themselves, Frank Bakke-Jensen admitted that money may be taken from other parts of the budget. Despite challenging Bergens Tidende’s calculation, Bakke-Jensen ventured that any additional costs could cause fresh funds to be pumped into the defence budget.
“If there is a need to utilise the uncertainty provision, the government will consider this need for funding against other projects and other focus areas”, Bakke-Jensen said, as quoted by Klassekampen.
This admission has triggered fears that other parts of society will ultimately have to fork out for the F-35s.
“What the government is now opening up to is covering the bill through additional funding. So, the bill will be shouldered by other parts of society. It can mean sending it to welfare, pensioners or the poor”, Socialist Left Party leader Audun Lysbakken warned.
“They try to give this impression that it has never been intended to cover the bill, if increased, by the defence budget alone”, he added. “The question is why they have been assuring us that the spending goal is within reach”.
Despite having drastically reduced the number of bases, Norway’s air force has made massive investments in procuring new aircraft. With 52 F-35s, Norway is set to become one of Europe’s foremost users of the US-made fighter jet, despite the project’s well-documented flaws and skyrocketing costs.
So far, Norway has received nine F-35 fighter aircraft, with an average price tag of NOK 1.375bn apiece (roughly $160 million), with another seven still running tests in the US.
(defense-aerospace.com EDITOR’S NOTE: That the Storting was misled on F-35 pricing is not a secret, and was already clear when it approved the purchase in 2008, but the Storting preferred to believe Norway’s defense minister and air force staff, and thus ignored warnings. Our December 2008 report detailing the scope of this disinformation, and the wrong assumptions used to understate costs, was clearly very much on target.
Successive ministers looked the other way, but the issue is now too big to hide, especially as social programs may be threatened. But the real problem will appear when, having received its full order, Norway will realize it cannot afford to operate them all, so the only possible outcome will be to store a large part of its F-35 fleet and only operate a fraction – at a flight hour cost of $44,000.) (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Sputnik News)
16 May 19. Open Up U.S. Market, EU Says In Riposte to Pentagon Threat. U.S. fears about losing European defense contracts are unfounded, Brussels told Washington on Thursday after the Pentagon demanded the European Union curtail a new military pact that it sees as a potential threat to NATO. In a May 1 letter seen by Reuters, the U.S. government warned the 28-country EU against going too far with defense integration and hinted at retaliation should American companies not be involved in future European weapons development. In its reply to U.S. Defense and State Department officials, the EU’s foreign service said it was “fully committed” to transatlantic ties and that procurement rules had not changed.
“The EU remains fully committed to working with the U.S. as a core partner in security and defense matters,” said the May 16 letter to U.S. defense officials, which was made public.
However, the EU’s letter also insisted that the United States, which dominates the global weapons market, should award more defense contracts to European companies and end export control regulations that limit the EU’s ability to use capabilities developed with U.S. technology.
“Such restrictions would be unacceptable for products and technologies funded by the EU budget,” the EU letter said. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Reuters)
16 May 19. Airbus expects licensing delays to Franco-German warplane project. Rows between France and Germany over the common arms export licensing rules they are trying to develop are likely to delay until after the Paris Air Show the concrete launch of a joint Franco-German warplane programme, an Airbus official said.
Alexander Reinhardt, Airbus’s representative in Berlin said that it and partner Dassault had hoped to sign contracts at June’s aviation trade show in Le Bourget that would unlock more than a hundred million euros in development funds.
“But that is unlikely to happen, because we in Germany just need too much time for this process” of agreeing common arms export rules, he said in Berlin on Thursday.
Germany is at odds with Britain and France, Europe’s other main arms exporters over Berlin’s strict position on arms exports, which has forced manufacturers across the continent to freeze sales to major buyers like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over human rights concerns.
The contracts that had been scheduled for signing in Paris would have unlocked funds for developing a demonstrator aircraft – a proof-of-concept vehicle that would pave the way for a full prototype.
Reinhardt said that there had been no progress on agreeing common export rules despite months of talks between France and Germany. The talks are open-ended.
“So far we have seen no progress, and our partners are deeply, deeply frustrated,” he added. (Source: Reuters)
16 May 19. Austrian prosecutors see little basis for case against Airbus – report. Vienna prosecutors believe there is little basis for an investigation into a decade-old $2bn (1.5bn pounds) Eurofighter jet purchase by Austria, two media reported on Thursday, citing an internal report.
Austrian prosecutors launched investigations against Airbus and the Eurofighter consortium in February 2017 after the defence ministry said it believed they had misled the state about the price, deliverability and equipment of the 2003 deal. Airbus and the consortium have denied the accusations.
The probe has prompted the current government, which took office in December 2017, to wait with a decision on whether to scrap its Eurofighter fleet until there is clarity.
The defence ministry, however, says it needs a “timely” solution as the life time for the Saab aircraft Austria operates alongside the Eurofighters is running out next year. Austria therefore needs to decide whether to continue using two families of jets or switch to one.
In addition to the 2017 probe, prosecutors have been investigating the Eurofighter jet deal in another case for about 8 years.
INSUFFICIENT GROUNDS
Two prosecutors told a meeting last month that there were insufficient grounds to open the 2017 investigation in the first place, according to an internal document obtained by ORF radio and news platform Addendum.
The meeting on April 1 between prosecutors and Justice Ministry officials was held to discuss next steps in ongoing Eurofighter investigations.
One prosecutor told the meeting that “he had difficulty understanding why the investigation was begun at all”, ORF said, citing minutes from the meeting published in the document.
The two media also reported that the prosecutors’ office for economic affairs and corruption, which has been handling the Eurofighter investigation since February, accused the Justice Ministry’s General Secretary, Christian Pilnacek, of abuse of office because he had demanded it closes the case quickly.
The Procurator General’s Office – a body that oversees prosecutors’ work – confirmed it had received a complaint. It said it referred it to the prosecutors’ office in the city of Linz for further investigation.
Pilnacek rejected the accusations. “The question at the meeting was how to make best use of the results we have to date to bring the case to an end,” he told Reuters, adding that investigators had compiled a great deal of incriminating material over the years.
“There was a lack of willingness (at the prosecutors’ side) to understand that viewpoint.”
The prosecutors’ office for economic affairs and corruption said in an emailed statement it “stands for clean investigations” but did not provide any more detail. (Source: Reuters)
16 May 19. European Union rejects US claims to internal defense coffers. European Union officials have rejected U.S. demands for automatic access to the bloc’s defense budget, arguing the money is meant only to nurse military capabilities among member countries. The reaction follows renewed pressure by senior defense officials in Washington to open EU programs and budgets – namely, the envisioned €13bn European Defence Fund and the growing collection of programs under the Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, framework – for U.S. contractors.
Some in the Trump administration have criticized EU moves to boost the continent’s fledgling military capabilities as needless competition to NATO. At the same time, the U.S. president never tires of calling Europeans laggards on defense, accusing them of riding on the coattails of American taxpayers for their security.
Washington’s latest shot against the EU’s defense plans came in the form of a letter this month from Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson. The two complained to EU foreign policy and defense chief Federica Mogherini that draft rules for allowing non-Europeans into the bloc’s programs were too restrictive, amounting to a “dramatic reversal of the last three decades of increased integration of the trans-Atlantic defense sector.”
Mogherini retorted in a press conference late Tuesday that the bloc remains open to cooperation with the United States, but that the European Defence Fund and PESCO were primarily designed to be intra-continental affairs.
“It’s not defined as an instrument for partnership,” she said, noting that other avenues exist for trans-Atlantic cooperation.
She also argued that American defense companies already do more business in Europe than European companies are able to do with the U.S. military, suggesting a mismatch by design.
At the heart of the matter lies the still-unresolved rule for permitting so-called “third-party states” into the inner sanctum of EU defense machinations. According to Mogherini, continued uncertainty on the issue creates “unnecessary agitation.” A final decision on the policy should be made “as soon as possible,” hopefully at a mid-June meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, she said.
European Defence Agency chief Jorge Domecq echoed Mogherini’s remarks in an interview with Defense News on Wednesday. He likened the EU-wide defense pact to a marriage of the 25 participating member states. “In a marriage, in a couple, inviting a third person in, you have to decide the conditions.”
Whatever rules the member states will ultimately support would be guided by the question, “What is the added value of participation of this specific third country in PESCO,” Domecq said. As for the U.S. complaints about feeling left out, he said, “There is no change in the procurement rules. There is no wish to challenge cooperation.”
The agency is part of the PESCO secretariat, which means its officials help broker how the various projects come together.
According to Domecq and Mogherini, the 34 projects already on the books are progressing well. Their comments come after a study by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies was critical of the headway made so far. The analysis warned that the framework risks delaying urgently needed capabilities because funding and delivery time lines are still unresolved for many projects.
EU officials should begin prioritizing the most promising projects over those at risk of failure to ensure that they will have something to show for in case funding gets scarce, according to the IISS analysts.
Domecq argued that setting up requisite management structures to produce tangible outcomes for all PESCO projects will take time, given that the initial batch of initiatives was approved only in March 2018. “Capability development has never been an effort that gives results from one day to another,” he said.
At the same time, he signaled openness to the idea that some efforts could fall by the wayside over time or see a change in direction.
“In the evolution of the projects … some might go ahead, but some member states might decide at a later stage, ‘Let’s review it, let’s merge it with another project, or let’s reduce it in scope,’” Domecq said.
The secretariat launched a call for new proposals earlier this month. Member states have until the end of July to submit their proposals.
Officials plan to skip calling for new project proposals in 2020 to allow strategic planning processes to catch up, said Domecq. The plan is eventually to get to two-year cycles in which the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) takes up one year and the launch of new capability projects follows in the next. (Source: Defense News)
15 May 19. New UK defense chief draws a line in the sand on military funding. Barely two weeks into her new job as British defense secretary, Penny Mordaunt has used her maiden speech to warn the Treasury that she will be fighting to secure the “critical investment” the military needs to meet the emerging challenges from Russia, China and elsewhere.
“I cannot tell you that the Treasury is going to welcome this message…I cannot tell you the Treasury will agree with this message. I can promise though , that the Treasury will hear this message,” she told an audience of politicians, industry executives and senior naval officers at the Royal United Services Institute Sea Power conference in London May 15.
Promising to not be shy about asking for more money, Mordaunt did add that the ask must be linked to the job the armed forces need to accomplish.
“The only way to get credibility with the Treasury is to be focused on our task. What is it we are asking the Royal Navy and wider defense to do?
If the [role of the] Royal Navy and wider defense is to deliver on the ambitions of our country, then we must tackle the funding and the political behaviors which constantly undermine it,” she said.
Consultant Alex Ashbourne Walmsley of ASC consultancy in London said Mordaunt was realistic in saying the Treasury may not agree with her message.
“She has a clear view of what she wants the armed forces to be but I think she is wise enough to know that may not mean an immediate influx of funds, said Ashbourne Walmsley.
The defense secretary declined to put a figure on the size of the increase the Ministry of Defence would be seeking in the upcoming spending review, due to apportion budgets for all government departments for the next three years.
Part of the problem in the past was that people have been distracted by the debate around whether the 2 percent of GDP guideline set by NATO was a floor or a ceiling for national defense spending, she said.
Ashbourne Walmsley agreed.
“It’s not the real issue,” he said. “The message she has to get over to the Treasury and the Cabinet Office is what defense needs the money for,” regardless of NATO aspirations.
Mordaunt’s remarks about spending come just two days after Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt used a major speech in London to call for a “decisive” defense budget boost over the next decade to maintain Britain’s position as a leading global military power.
Neither Hunt nor Mordaunt offered any suggestions as to where the cash for a defense spending hike might come from. The MoD is trying to close the current hole in defense spending over the next 10 years with efficiencies and cuts and delays to programs and capabilities.
Hunt’s speech was seen as something of a personal manifesto as he and others prepare for a leadership fight once Prime Minister Theresa May is finally pushed out of office over her chaotic efforts to negotiate a withdrawal deal for the European Union.
The new defense secretary is said to have similar ambitions too and her confident, well received, RUSI speech smacked slightly of a leadership campaign, said some delegates at the conference.
Mordaunt, Britain’s first female defense secretary, is a navy reservist and was ex-armed forces minister before becoming secretary of state at the Department for International Development.
Mordaunt took up her new role May 1 after her predecessor, Gavin Williamson, was fired after being accused by the prime minister of leaking sensitive information to the media relating to Chinese communications company Huawei.
Not too many people had much good to say about Williamson after his departure. However, most did praise him for persistent efforts to winkle more cash out of a reluctant chancellor, ex-defense secretary Philip Hammond. (Source: Defense News)
15 May 19. GMB ‘Cautiously Welcomes’ Defence Secretary Hints . That £1bn FSS Contract Could Stay In UK. GMB Union has long argued that Ministers can easily exempt these ships from international competition.
GMB, the union for shipbuilding, has cautiously welcomed Penny Mordaunt’s comments to the First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference today.
The Defence Secretary dropped a strong hint the upcoming Fleet Solid Support ships could be built in the UK.
She said: “What’s needed is a closer partnership with industry that gives them the confidence to invest and build, and us the confidence that we can and we must buy British.” [1]
GMB has long campaigned for the £1bn FSS contract to be given to UK shipyards – producing a ground-breaking report highlighting the estimated 6,700 jobs created or secured if the orders were kept in the UK. [2]
Ross Murdoch, GMB National Officer and CSEU Chair, said: “GMB has long argued that Ministers can easily exempt these ships from international competition on national security grounds in the same way other European counterparts do. Let’s hope these comments mark the start of a change of philosophy and we see the badly needed orders that drive a real renaissance in shipbuilding – and hopefully steel – bringing skills, jobs, apprentices and prosperity. GMB members now need to see action not just words.”
15 May 19. EU Urges US to Back Off on Arms Firms Sanctions Threat. Joint EU military projects will not hurt US arms firms, Europe’s top diplomat has said, following yet another American sanctions threat.
“The European Union is and remains open to US companies and equipment,” EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini told press in Brussels on Tuesday (14 May) after a meeting of European defence ministers. “At the moment, the EU is actually much more open than the US procurement market is for the European Union companies and equipment,” she said.
“In the EU there is no ‘Buy European Act’ – and around 81 percent of international contracts go to US firms in Europe today. I do not see real reasons for concern,” she added.
Mogherini spoke after two senior US defence officials, Ellen Lord and Andrea Thompson, sent her a letter on 1 May which threatened to impose sanctions on European arms firms if new EU schemes for joint military procurement ended up locking out US ones.
“It is clear that similar reciprocally imposed US restrictions would not be welcomed by our European partners and allies, and we would not relish having to consider them in the future,” the letter, leaked to European media in recent days, said. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/EU Observer)
15 May 19. Military prosecutions: ‘Unfair’ investigations to be barred. British troops and veterans will be given stronger legal protections against prosecution, Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt will announce. The new law would protect them from investigation over actions on the battlefield abroad after 10 years, except in “exceptional circumstances”.
Ms Mordaunt said it would prevent “repeated or unfair investigations”.
The protections, which will be put to a public consultation, would not apply to alleged offences in Northern Ireland.
On taking office earlier this month, after the sacking of Gavin Williamson, Ms Mordaunt said preventing members of the armed forces from being “pursued unfairly” over claims of wrongdoing would be her “personal priority”.
The new protections apply to actions carried out in the course of duty more than a decade ago.
In these cases, there would be a statutory presumption against prosecution for current or former armed forces personnel.
But in exceptional circumstances, such as where compelling new evidence had emerged, the protections could be set aside.
In a statement before the announcement, Ms Mordaunt said: “It is high time that we change the system and provide the right legal protections to make sure the decisions our service personnel take in the battlefield will not lead to repeated or unfair investigations down the line.”
- MP withdraws support for PM over veterans
- Soldier vows to defy Iraqi death inquiry
- Iraq war allegations probe to end
She is also expected to repeat the government’s commitment to take up a right to suspend parts of the European Convention on Human Rights before the UK embarks on military operations.
The Ministry of Defence said the suspension, known as “derogation”, would protect British troops from the kind of “persistent” legal claims that followed operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The defence secretary is expected to say that lessons from investigating allegations in Iraq and Afghanistan should also be applied to Northern Ireland, although the presumption against prosecution would not apply.
Six former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles are currently facing prosecution.
The cases relate to Daniel Hegarty; Bloody Sunday; John Pat Cunningham; Joe McCann (involving two ex-soldiers); and Aidan McAnespie.
Not all the charges are murder.
The Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland said that of 26 so-called legacy cases it has taken decisions on since 2011, 13 related to republicans, eight to loyalists, and five are connected to the Army.
The proceedings have been criticised by some Tory MPs, including former Army officer Johnny Mercer, who earlier this month said he would not co-operate with the government until it ended the prosecutions. (Source: BBC)
13 May 19. U.S. asks Turkey delay taking delivery of Russian missile; Ankara unlikely to back down. The United States has asked Turkey to delay taking delivery of the S-400 Russian missile defence system, currently scheduled for July, in return for potentially approving the formation of a working group that Ankara has sought to establish, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.
But a senior Turkish official reiterated Ankara’s position that it would not back down from its planned purchase of the system, a procurement that has widened a diplomatic rift between the two NATO allies.
“We will buy the s-400s in July. Our position has not changed,” he said.
But the source said talks on the issue continued.
U.S. officials have called Turkey’s planned purchase of the S-400 missile defence system “deeply problematic,” saying it would risk Ankara’s partnership in the joint strike fighter F-35 programme because it would compromise the jets, made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
The United States and other NATO allies that own F-35s fear the radar on the system will learn how to spot and track the jet, making it less able to evade Russian weapons.
Ankara has been pushing Washington to establish a working group to assess the risks the system would be posing to the F-35 jet. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had dismissed the proposal but there has been renewed effort in Washington to try to use the offer to open a channel for further dialogue with Ankara, another source briefed on the matter said.
The disagreement is the latest in a series of diplomatic disputes between the United States and Turkey. They include Turkish demands that Washington extradite cleric Fethullah Gulen, differences over Middle East policy and the war in Syria, and sanctions on Iran.
In protest at Ankara’s planned Russian missile defence system purchase, the United States in late March halted delivery of equipment related to the stealthy F-35 fighter aircraft to Turkey.
On Monday, the top civilian in the U.S. Air Force, Secretary Heather Wilson, confirmed to reporters in Washington on Monday that shipments of F-35 support gear to Turkey were still halted. She added that discussions were ongoing regarding those shipments. But Wilson said Turkish pilots continued their F-35 training programme in Arizona. (Source: Reuters)
14 May 19. UK’s top diplomat urges ‘decisive’ defense budget boost. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for British defense spending to be “decisively” increased over the next decade to help protect the country from possible changes to the global balance of power.
“I believe it is time for the next Strategic Defence and Security Review to ask whether, over the coming decade, we should decisively increase the proportion of GDP we devote to defence,” he told the Lord Mayors Banquet in London May 13.
Reinforcing Britain’s role in the world through hard power was critical, he said.
Any additional funds for defense would need to be for new capabilities and not simply plugging gaps in existing plans, he told the audience.
Britain is spending around £38bn, or $49bn, on defense this year; just above 2 percent of its annual gross domestic product. That’s a figure that has been steadily declining for years. By the end of the Cold War the figure stood at around 4 percent.
Hunt didn’t spell out in his speech exactly what the defense spending target should be, but the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported this morning that he favors matching the US level of spending at around 4 percent of GDP.
The Parliamentary defence committee and others have consistently argued that British defense spending should be around the 3 percent mark to help transform the military at a time when the defense budget is under huge pressure. That’s a move the Treasury and the Cabin Office have always resisted.
A cross-government spending review is currently underway to set the levels of departmental budgets, including defense, for the next three years. Defence officials have been battling for more cash to get the over-committed budget in shape and avoid cutting or delaying programs and capabilities.
The foreign secretary justified his call for more defense spending saying the threat picture had changed since military funding had been so dramatically reduced at the end of the Cold War. America’s dominance was no longer assured, he said.
“We are in a multipolar world without the assurance provided by unquestioned American dominance. We face a more aggressive Russia and a more assertive China. We simply do not know what the balance of power in the world will be in 25 years’ time.
“At the same time the nature of warfare is changing. The conflicts of tomorrow could well start with a cyber attack, then escalate into precision strikes by hypersonic missiles followed by swarms of unmanned aircraft. The new domains of space and cyber and the immense capabilities of artificial intelligence will transform the conduct of warfare,” he said.
Britain needed to be leaders in these areas if it wanted to defend its values, he said.
Hunt also took aim at some of Britain’s European NATO partners over their failure to spend more on defense.
Continuing pressure from the Trump administration has seen some improvements in European spending, but Hunt said: “It is simply not sustainable to expect one NATO ally [the United States] to spend nearly 4 percent of its GDP on defence while the others spend between 1 and 2 percent.”
The foreign secretary is one of several potential Conservative leadership contenders positioning themselves to replace embattled Prime Minister Theresa May, who is under increasing pressure to resign over her failure to satisfactorily negotiate Britain’s exit from Europe.
The annual speech normally focuses on foreign affairs, but Hunt’s speech read a little like a personal manifesto covering defense, the economy, Brexit and other issues.
Penny Mordaunt, appointed as the British defense secretary last week after the controversial sacking of her predecessor Gavin Williamson over leaking details of a government security review, is another Conservative politician also said to have her eyes on a possible bid to replace May.
What shape the Conservative Party could be in for the likes of Hunt, Mordaunt and others vying to lead remains to be seen after the chaos of the Brexit negotiations.
Opinion polls are recording the Conservatives suffering a collapse of support to just 11 percent of the voters for the upcoming European elections, forced on Britain because the nation failed to leave the European Union on March 29 as planned.
Mordaunt and her top lieutenants are presently a little preoccupied with business more close to home as they run the rule over defence department plans left by Williamson’s departure.
That work is likely to delay a number of announcements previously lined up by Williamson for the coming weeks, including the release of a long-awaited defense space strategy.
Ironically, the outlines of the space strategy review were leaked to the Times newspaper just prior to Williamson’s departure. A formal announcement had been expected to follow soon after the Times story but that has now been postponed. (Source: Defense News)
14 May 19. European Union’s defense-collab push could fizzle, report warns. A collection of European Union initiatives for improving the bloc’s military prowess is at risk of failure unless member countries tighten the reins on how the projects are managed, a new think thank study has found. The analysis by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies calls for reforms in the so-called PESCO framework, which is short for Permanent Structure Cooperation. European defense leaders have touted PESCO and its funding mechanisms, including the envisioned multibillion-dollar European Defense Fund, as a major breakthrough in consolidating military capabilities scattered across EU member states.
To date, participating member states have launched 34 projects, one batch in March 2018 and another in November. Their objectives target aspects across the spectrum of military capabilities, everything from software-defined radios to reconnaissance airships to maritime security, cyber operations and military logistics.
But the efforts “seem to face common challenges related to stakeholder coordination, funding, and importantly, an understanding of what the projects are actually meant to achieve,” IISS researchers write in an upcoming report. In addition, many of the projects examined by the analysts come without a clear understanding of how the results would “help in relation to EU missions.”
“These risks raise the real possibility that PESCO may become yet another missed opportunity on the long road to more integrated European defense cooperation,” states the report.
European Union officials plan to add yet more projects by this summer. At the same time, IISS researchers argue that the collection of initiatives is ripe for weeding out those with little promise of success. Notably, programs that existed before coming under the PESCO umbrella show the greatest signs of progress, according to the analysis.
Tossing out certain initiatives will become even more necessary if it becomes clear that the full plate could exhaust available funding, Yvonni-Stefania Efstathiou, one of the authors, told Defense News. “What happens if the funding doesn’t come through? What happens if you have to prioritize?”
“We noticed that there is a lot of talk about launching projects,” Efstathiou said about the impetus for the study. “But we heard little on implementation.” (Source: Defense News)
14 May 19. US warns against European joint military project. Washington letter to Brussels threatens retaliation if American groups are shut out. Germany’s defence minister said that a European Defence Union would not undermine Nato. The US has warned that greater military co-operation between EU countries would be a “dramatic reversal” of three decades of transatlantic defence integration, in the latest sign of the fraying relationship between Washington and Brussels. In a letter seen by the Financial Times, Washington threatened retaliation if the Europeans pressed ahead with rules that it said would restrict the involvement of US companies in pan-European military projects. The correspondence was sent this month to Federica Mogherini, the EU’s top diplomat, by Ellen Lord, US under secretary of defence, and Andrea Thompson, under secretary of state. It said that Washington was “deeply concerned” that approval of the rules for the European Defence Fund and the Permanent Structured Cooperation, or Pesco, launched in 2017 to plug gaps in Europe’s military power, would “produce duplication, non-interoperable military systems, diversion of scarce defence resources and unnecessary competition between Nato and the EU”.
“It is vital . . . that independent EU initiatives like EDF and Pesco do not detract from Nato activities and Nato-EU co-operation,” the letter said. Washington said the rules for the EDF contained “poison pills” that would prevent companies based outside the EU, including the US, from participating in military projects. The letter also warned that the US could respond with its own restrictions on EU groups. “It is clear that similar reciprocally imposed US restrictions would not be welcomed by our European partners and allies, and we would not relish having to consider them in the future,” the letter said. Gordon Sondland, US ambassador to the EU, said in March that if the bloc persisted with its “stubbornness or protectionism” on its multibillion-euro joint military projects, the US would consider various responses unlikely to “be positive for either side”. Recommended The Big Read Nato at 70: Europe fears tensions will outlast Trump The broadside will stoke anxiety among EU diplomats, who think the US has misinterpreted what European military upgrades are intended to achieve.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding of how the European Union works,” said one EU member state official. “They are reading language in it that is fencing the European continent off from American co-operation possibilities — and that’s not true.” Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s defence minister, said Europeans “are doing what our American friends have been demanding we do for years. Our task now is to convince our allies that Nato will only profit from the efforts to create a European Defence Union,” she said. Twenty-five of the bloc’s 28 member states have signed up to Pesco, which involves projects ranging from a spy school to a new generation of battlefield missiles. The EDF is set to receive €13bn in the EU’s next seven-year budget. EU officials said Pesco was a response to longstanding demands from Washington for Europe to contribute more to Nato, which have grown louder since Donald Trump became president. The EU said it wanted to improve its military capabilities without undermining Nato’s responsibility for Europe’s collective defence. But US officials argue that the EU’s military plans could weaken Nato rather than enhance it. Some Nato officials also worry that initiatives such as Pesco could duplicate the alliance’s work and discriminate against non-EU members. The letter to Ms Mogherini also attacked rules that require ownership of intellectual property arising from an EU project to remain with the recipient in Europe, even after the work is complete. Washington argued this would discourage non-EU companies from bidding. (Source: FT.com)
14 May 19. The Swedish Defence Commission Presents its White Book on Sweden’s Security Policy and the Development of its Military Defence. On Tuesday, 14 May 2019, the Swedish Defence Commission presented its final report, “Defensive power – Sweden’s Security Policy and the Development of its Military Defence 2021-2025” to Minister of Defence Peter Hultqvist. The report contains an updated, comprehensive analysis of the security situation around Sweden. The Commission notes that the security situation in Europe has deteriorated over time, due to Russia’s actions. Developments in Asia, particularly China’s rapid development and its more assertive role, are of growing importance to Swedish foreign and security policy. European states must shoulder a larger responsibility for their own security and defence.
An armed attack on Sweden cannot be excluded, nor can the use of military measures against Sweden, or threats thereof. The Swedish total defence will be developed and designed to ensure that Sweden is prepared in order to meet an armed attack against Sweden, including other acts of war on Swedish territory.
The Commission proposes, among other things, to reinforce and enlarge the military organization after mobilization. The proposals aim to improve the balance between the different parts of the military defence, such as command and control, fighting and support units, as well as to strengthen the capacity for sustained action by increasing the number of units.
The proposals of the Defence Commission regarding a new war-time military organization require an increase in personnel. Starting in 2024, up to 8,000 conscripts per year will undergo military training.
The proposals of the Defence Commission will result in a budget for the military defence amounting to 84bn SEK annually starting from 2025. Based on the cost level in 2019, this will be equivalent to 1.5 percent of GDP in 2025. On top of the budget increase assigned by the Parliament in December 2018, the Commission proposes to gradually increase the defence budget by adding 5bn SEK annually every year in the period 2022-2025. (Source: defense-aerospace.com/Swedish Ministry of Defence)
13 May 19. MoD will rue the day it spent £6bn on new aircraft carriers, says former defence chief. The purchase of Britain’s new aircraft carriers was a “bad idea” and the MoD would “rue the day” they were bought, a former defence chief has said. The Lord Houghton of Richmond, former Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), has told a Commons committee the £6bn price tag for Britain’s two new carriers was “affordable only to the detriment of the surface fleet”.
Giving evidence to the National Security Strategy committee, Lord Houghton said that as Vice Chief of the Defence Staff in 2010 he was not in favour of buying two aircraft carriers and new F-35 stealth jets for the air force whilst also expecting the Defence budget to include the nuclear deterrent submarines.
Spending on such expensive equipment “massively unbalances the amount of money to spend on capabilities in more active need of use,” he said.
Lord Houghton said HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales were deemed to be “too totemic to Britain’s sense of place in the world” for the programmes to be cancelled, and acknowledged that to do so would send “too big a signal of our diminution on the world stage”.
His concerns were not heeded by the then prime minister, David Cameron, and his deputy, Nick Clegg, and were not shared by other senior officers on the Chiefs of Staff committee; the heads of Britain’s armed services plus CDS and the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff.
“From a political decision about hard power, that’s what they [the politicians] wanted to do” he said.
He also raised concerns about the “critical state” of manning in the Royal Navy, saying “there’s no point spending money if you don’t have the manpower”. (Source: News Now/Daily Telegraph)
BATTLESPACE Comment: Unsubstantiated rumours have been flying around for years that the purchase of the aircraft carriers and the F-35s, whose budget was in effect taken from the FRES budget earmarked for the new armoured vehicle fleet, was political for Scottish and Glasgow jobs in particular, not strategic, has refused to die down. The failure to buy FRES and the moves made in government to disprove its worth, costing a reported £300m, is continuing to effect the defence budget and the Army’s capability in particular, to this day. The ability of the Royal navy to crew the carriers has also affected the effectiveness of the ability of the Navy to conduct operations.
13 May 19. Defence aerospace workers urge MPs to back UK jobs with continued funding for Tempest. Unite representatives from BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls Royce are heading to parliament later today (Monday 13 May) urging MPs to ensure the continued funding for Tempest, the UK’s replacement of the Typhoon fighter jet. Plans to develop the next generation of fighter aircraft and £2bn of funding were signed off in July last year leading to the creation of 400 jobs, with a further 350 working on the project by the end of 2019.
Unite is pressing Penny Mordaunt, the new defence secretary, to continue funding for Tempest by ensuring the 10 year defence equipment plan is fully funded in the comprehensive spending review.
Commenting Unite national officer Rhys McCarthy said: “By 2020 nearly 25 pence in every pound of UK defence spending will be with US companies. It is vital not just for the UK’s sovereign defence capability, but for jobs and skills throughout the manufacturing supply chain that the design and build of projects like Tempest is done here in the UK.
“Unite will continue to press the government to ensure its commitment to the long term funding of Tempest is not watered down under the new defence secretary.
“We will also be calling on MPs to back UK defence jobs by urging the government to pursue procurement policies which favour UK prosperity through onshore design and build rather than buying off the shelf from abroad on short-term economic grounds.” (Source: Google/https://unitetheunion.org)
10 May 19. Readout of Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan’s Meeting with Latvian Minister of Defense Dr. Artis Pabriks. Acting Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Charles E. Summers Jr. provided the following readout: Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan met with Latvian Minister of Defense Dr. Artis Pabriks today at the Pentagon to reaffirm the defense relationship between the United States and Latvia.
Secretary Shanahan thanked Minister Pabriks for Latvia’s support for NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence, hosting the NATO Center of Excellence for Strategic Communications and meeting NATO burden-sharing commitments.
The leaders discussed a broad range of defense issues, including efforts to improve interoperability and regional command and control measures. Secretary Shanahan and Minister Pabriks agreed to continue working on shared security goals resulting from the U.S.-Baltic Summit in 2018.
During the visit, U.S. and Latvian defense officials signed a five-year Defense Cooperation Strategic Roadmap. The roadmap identifies specific security cooperation priorities the United States and Latvia agreed to focus on from 2019 to 2024. Latvia is the second Baltic nation to sign such an agreement. Lithuania signed a similar agreement April 2, 2019. (Source: US DoD)
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