Nick Hopkins
Guardian
September 27, 2011

Britain’s shrinking military will “never again be among the global superpowers” but will have enough capability to assist in operations such as Libya and Afghanistan in the future, a study said on Tuesday.

However, the MoD’s finances will be capsized and its resources further diminished unless there is a substantial increase in defence spending to cover the “looming” costs of the replacement for the Trident nuclear deterrent.

The warning comes from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) thinktank in a tough report which questions whether Britain’s defence crisis is really over.

Last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review led to sweeping redundancies across all three services, and the early mothballing of, among others, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, and the fleet of Harrier jets.

Read full report here