British daily the Guardian reports that politicians and military officials are mulling to order only 70 instead of the planned 140 JSF models. There is also discussion if Britain can afford the two aircraft carriers planned, or if the second one should be downsized or scrapped, the daily writes. Costs for each JSF have nearly doubled and delays have plagued the carrier program.

"The carriers are under real threat. There will certainly be a big reduction in JSF numbers," a senior military source told the Guardian.

Meanwhile, the number of soldiers serving in the British armed forces could be cut by 20 percent because of a lack of money, according to a new report by a military think tank.

The number of trained military personnel will likely fall from 175,000 in 2010 to 142,000 in 2016, the Royal United Services Institute said in a report released Wednesday.

"This is the probable result of a projected cut in the defense budget of around 10-15 percent in real terms," writes the report's author, senior defense expert Malcolm Chalmers.

In addition to the budget reductions, personnel and weapons operations costs have been and are continuously rising.

"The combination of these two trends means that the next six years are likely to see a reduction of around 20 percent in numbers of service personnel, and a commensurate reduction in numerical military capabilities (major vessels, aircraft and ground formations)," Chalmers writes. "If cutbacks are evenly spread, ground formations (including infantry, armor, artillery and support regiments) would have to fall from 97 to 79, available aircraft (fixed wing and rotary) would be reduced from 760 to 615, and major vessels (submarines, carriers, escorts and major supply ships) would fall from 57 to 46."

The central question for this year's defense review," which the major parties want to tackle after the May elections, "will be whether some of these capabilities should be protected at the expense of deeper cuts in others."

Senior military officials have already complained that British troops in Afghanistan are underfunded, with helicopters and drones held back because of budget constraints.

Britain's annual defense budget is around $50 billion. The yearly costs of the Afghanistan operation, around $5.8 billion, are paid out of the Treasury's contingency fund.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News