3.5 - UK Military Power

Question 1

What are the areas of UK military spending?

Answer 1

• Navy
• Intelligence
• Air power
• Nuclear deterrent

Question 2

Why should the UK spend on its military?

Answer 2

• Global instability: Middle East, protecting interests in South China Sea, protecting airspace from Russian military aircraft flybys
• Employment: keeps personnel employed as well as industries and associated R&D
• Country is increasingly dependent on Internet, national security is important from a socioeconomic point of view
• Maintain global power: in regions of interest eg. Arabian Gulf

Question 3

Why shouldn’t the UK spend on its military to as large an extent as before?

Answer 3

• conventional warfare is increasingly rare (Ukraine is an exception)
• Spending isn’t necessarily a solution eg. Insurgents in Afghanistan were victorious against US and UK military despite funding gap
• money may be better spent elsewhere eg. Education, healthcare
• Soft power is becoming increasingly more important than hard power to keep superpower status

Question 4

How important is renewing the nuclear deterrent?

Answer 4

• arguably unnecessary as have never been deployed
• however, can be argued presence of deterrent and mutually assured destruction resulted in no need to fire them
• emerging superpowers are also gaining or are at a point where they can gain nuclear strike capability
  
  • therefore would make sense to keep it

Question 5

What proportion of MPs voted to renew Trident nuclear deterrent?

Answer 5

• 60% in July 2016

Question 6

What nuances have to be considered when investing in the Navy?

Answer 6

• Aircraft carriers allow for staging of fighter jets closer to war zones, tactical advantage
  
  • however are vulnerable to anti ship missiles based on land
• new laser based weaponry is expensive but is needed to gain edge over rivals
• cost of defence is more expensive than attack capabilities

Question 7

How many aircraft carriers does the UK have?

Answer 7

• 2 operational aircraft carriers
• cost £6 billion to fit with military equipment and to buy associated F-35 jets

Question 8

What nuances have to be considered when investing in the air power?

Answer 8

• fighter jets are less cost effective than drones for most missions
  
  • but are being replaced due to greater range of abilities afforded by fighters
• large bombers are being built but need to be upgradable to be kept flying for longer
• NATO are spending more on military air power
  
  • may need to invest in order to keep up

Question 9

Why is investment in intelligence important?

Answer 9

• AI, technology and human spies are necessary
  
  • in order to prevent tampering of domestic affairs by external players
  • countries such as China and North Korea have dedicated teams to hack networks
• cyber attacks are more likely due to prevalence of computer networks and reliance on them
• is incredibly expensive and fast moving but is necessary to keep country functioning