Uno de los nuevos portaaviones británicos navergará por tres años y nunca llevará aviones, después será vendido, según se desprende del documento de Revisión de Defensa a emitir hoy por el Gobierno.
Tal documento confirma que el Reino Unido no dispondrá de una fuerza de portaaviones efectiva hasta 2020.
El primer ministro Cameron deseaba eliminar uno de los dos portaaviones, pero al estar los contratos firmados, esto habría significado mayores costes para el contribuyente. Otras medidas que se anunciarán serán:
-Retraso de un año de los sustitutos de los misiles nucleares Trident.
-El Ejército perderá 7.000 soldados, 100 tanques y 200 vehículos blindados. Se retirarán las tropas estacionadas en Alemania.
-La RAF mantendrá su flota de Tornado, se cerrarán dos bases y causarán baja 5.000 personas.
- La Royal Navy pasará de 24 buques a 19. Los Harrier serán retirados en 2012, sin sustituto todavía, ya que el F35 Joint Strike Fighter llegará en 2020. Se retirará el portaeronaves Ark Royal. El otro portaaeronaves de la Royal Navy, el HMS Illustrious, será utilizado hasta 2014, en que se retirará.
El primer nuevo portaaviones el HMS Queen Elizabeth, entrará en servicio en 2016, configurado como portahelicópteros. El segundo, el HMS Prince of Wales, entrará en servicio en 2019. En ese año el HMS Queen Elizabeth será puesto en la reserva y es improbable que entre de nuevo en servicio.
La decisión de retirar al Harrier, dejará sin aviación naval de ala fija al Reino Unido por al menos nueve años, aunque el gobierno se ha apresurado a quitar importancia a esta medida. Se establecerán conversaciones con Francia para poder compartir su portaaviones.
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One of the Navy’s new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and will sail for only three years before being mothballed and possibly sold, ministers will announce on Tuesday.
The Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review will also confirm that Britain will not have an effective “carrier strike” capability – a working aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets – until 2020.
Cameron had wanted to scrap one of the two carriers, but the review found that contracts signed by the previous government meant that doing so would end up costing the taxpayer more than going ahead with both. The two carriers will enter service, but one will be mothballed as soon as possible.
He will also announce:
-The replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent will be delayed by a year until after the general election scheduled for 2015.
-The Army will lose 7,000 soldiers, more than 100 tanks and 200 armoured vehicles. One armoured brigade will be lost and the end of Britain’s 65-year presence in Germany will be signalled.
-The RAF will keep most of its Tornado fighter-bombers but lose at least 5,000 personnel. Two RAF bases will close and be occupied by soldiers returning from Germany.
- The Navy’s fleet of warships will drop from 24 to 19 and it will lose 4,000 personnel. Harrier jump-jets will be scrapped next year but no F35 Joint Strike Fighters will be available to replace them until 2020.
The Navy’s other carrier, HMS Illustrious, will continue to function as a helicopter platform stripped of jets before retiring in 2014.
The first of the new carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will enter service in 2016, configured to carry helicopters, not jets. The second new carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, will arrive in 2019. At that point, HMS Queen Elizabeth will be put into “extended readiness”, effectively mothballed indefinitely.
Government sources indicated that the Queen Elizabeth was unlikely to return to service after that
Further angering Navy chiefs, the defence review will confirm that Harrier jump-jets will be abandoned next year but the RAF’s Tornado will be spared to operate in Afghanistan.
Scrapping the Harriers will create a “capability gap” of nine years, with Britain unable to fly fast jets from an aircraft carrier until 2020, when the new JSF enters service.
Government sources tried to play down the significance of the gap, insisting that Britain had agreements allowing RAF jets to fly from overseas bases in most strategically sensitive parts of the world.
Until 2020, Britain is likely to rely heavily on allies with a carrier strike capability, most significantly France.
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