Early Retirement For HMS Ark Royal

The budget cuts facing the UK military will be announced later today but the BBC is reporting that the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is destined to be an early casualty of the budgetary chopping block.

The Royal Navy's flagship, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, is to be scrapped early as part of the government's defence review. The UK's Harrier jump jets will be axed, the money saved going towards the cost of two new aircraft carriers. It means that, until at least 2019, Britain will not have the ability to launch fighter jets at sea.

David Cameron is due to unveil the first strategic defence and security review in 12 years at 1530 BST. During a visit to operations headquarters for the armed forces on Tuesday Mr Cameron said there had been some "difficult decisions" but the UK would remain "an absolutely front rank military power". One Harrier pilot, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Kris Ward asked the PM: "I have flown 140 odd missions in Afghanistan and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that sir?"

Mr Cameron thanked him for "everything" he had done for his country, but said there had been long discussions about the review and the military advice was that "it was right to keep the Typhoon as the principal ground attack aircraft, working in Afghanistan at the moment, and right to retire the Harrier".

Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the BBC the fleet had to modernise and have the "correct balance for the next 30 to 40 years". He said there had been periods in the past - before the Harriers came on stream - when the UK had aircraft carriers with no planes to fly on them. Dr Fox said there would be a range of helicopters and unmanned aircraft which would still be able to fly from them.

Unveiling the defence review at about 1530 BST, Mr Cameron is expected to announce:

- The Ark Royal, launched in 1985, will be decommissioned almost immediately, rather than in 2014, as previously planned.

- The construction of two new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, will go ahead, as it would cost more to cancel the projects than proceed with them.

- The navy will lose 4,000 personnel and its surface fleet will be cut from 24 to 19
Some squadrons of RAF Tornado jets will be saved - although some air force bases will close.

- The Army will have to cut up to 7,000 or so personnel over the next five years, and lose 100 tanks and heavy artillery.

- The Ministry of Defence itself will face substantial cuts to its civilian staff

The BBC has learned that at least one of the new carriers will be redesigned so that it can deploy normal fighter aircraft that do not need a Harrier-style vertical lift capability. Dr Fox said that there would be "interoperability" so strike fighter aircraft from allies such as France could land on UK aircraft carriers, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, sources say £750m ($1.2bn) will be saved over four years on the Trident nuclear deterrent missile system but it is not yet clear how those savings will be made. Dr Fox insisted any changes to the timetable for its replacement would not stop the UK's ability "to maintain a credible minimum nuclear deterrent".

Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was "worried" by the scale of UK defence cuts. But a Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister had spoken to President Obama on Monday, promising the UK would "remain a first-rate military power and a robust ally of the United States".

It would "continue to work closely with the US on the full range of current security priorities", he added.

By: Shelldrake