Global Security Newswire

A British legislative panel has accused Prime Minister David Cameron of throwing away defense expenditures by deciding in 2010 to zero funding for an advanced maritime spy aircraft, the London Telegraph reported on Friday (see GSN, Jan. 27, 2011).

The elimination of plans for the Royal Air Force Nimrod MRA4 maritime reconnaissance fleet "at such a late stage has resulted in [$5.4 billion] of taxpayers’ money being wasted without any benefit to the defense forces,” said Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the British Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, which prepared an assessment on the matter.

The aircraft's cancellation was intended to save roughly $3 billion over 10 years. The plane was designed to provide support for nuclear-armed submarines, according to an earlier report.

Separately, roughly $3.2 billion in additional expenses resulted from the government's decisions to retain a specially trained staff for a next-generation ballistic missile submarine by postponing plans for the Astute-class nuclear submarine, the Telegraph reported

British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond said the Defense Ministry had "taken a firm grip" on acquisitions of military technology and ended "vast cost increases of the past."

“Much has been achieved in clearing up the mess left by the last government and we are now close to eliminating the black hole in the [Defense Ministry's] finances,” Hammond said. “Scrapping the ill-fated Nimrod MRA4 was one of many tough but necessary decisions we had to take to deal with an equipment program that was out of control” (Thomas Harding, London Telegraph, Feb. 10).