Thread by @haynesdeborah

Happening now: Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton @UKCDS_MOD is giving evidence to @CommonsDefence

parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/20…

The UK defence chief says there is still no date yet for the defence investment plan - even though it was meant to be released last autumn. He says he understand the concerns that former military chiefs and others have expressed about the delay

ACM Knighton refuses to confirm the size of a shortfall in the amount of money the UK armed forces needs to fund its equipment & personnel over the next four years, saying such discussions are classified at "secret". It comes after @thetimes + @TheSun revealed there is a £28bln hole

The chair of the @CommonsDefence keeps pressing the head of the armed forces to confirm there is a shortfall in the amount of money that the @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce - Air Chief Marshal Knighton keeps swerving a direct answer but says it is very clear that @DefenceHQ "cannot do everything we want to do as quickly as we want to do it" within the budget that has been set.
Translated: Yes there is a shortfall if the UK wants to rebuild its defences at the speed of necessity to meet the threats we face

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce The UK's military chief says it is "hard" to make the right judgement on how much to spend on defence and the kind of capability that is required. He says his job is to give clear advice to the prime minister and defence secretary

Tempers getting a bit strained but this is the most illustrative exchange. In a nutshell - the current defence equipment programme and the extra ambitions in the defence review are not affordable under the current budget. Options are being considered, from reducing programmes to increasing budgets.

Derek Twigg MP keeps pushing Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton to say that there will have to be cuts to the armed forces unless there is extra money or to admit that there is a shortfall. He refuses to do either but confirms that options are being considered that include cuts. Here is the exchange as best as I could type:

CDS is asked if there is any scenario facing the armed forces in which there is not going to be a shortfall in funding. The military chief says: If we want to do everything that is currently in the programme and all the extra things in the SDR the answer is no

Derek Twigg (DT), an MP on the @CommonsDefence: We are talking about cuts to programmes...

CDS: What you have to do is make some judgement of what you prioritise - how big the contingencies are going to be

DT: You really don't want to use the word cuts but really we are talking about reducing programmes, changing programmes, putting programmes back

CDS: All of those things are options under consideration but so is the level of ambition we might take and these are straight forward facts

DT: Without doing that there is no way you can avoid a funding shortfall

CDS: That is not what I am saying you just put words in my mouth. What I said is could we deliver the whole of the programme we currently have and do all of things we want to in SDR with the money we have got - no

DT: You would make cuts?

CDS: There are a whole bunch of things that are not in the programme. You have choice over how quickly you want to do them

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce Are military chiefs being gagged?

Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton: I haven't felt gagged in any way shape or form

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce CDS is asked if any UK troops deployed to Ukraine will be safe. He says "there is no such thing as a zero risk in an operational environment"

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce CDS reveals that the UK is being asked to deliver more to NATO in terms of military capability and he signals that it won't be able to do that until it is spending 3.5% of GDP on defence (which is not due to happen until 2035). "We have to do more and better"

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce BREAKING: The chief of the defence staff says the UK currently has no plan on how to mobilise the country's doctors, nurses and hospitals in the event of all out war.

"We do not have a holistic national plan on how to mobilise the NHS in times of all out war in Europe"

BREAKING: Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton admits that the UK does not currently have a good plan to "track and engage" the tens of thousands of people who served in the armed forces, left and are nominally part of what is called the Strategic Reserve - even though these are people who would play a part in defending the UK in the event of war.

The Chief of the defence staff says work is underway to regrow this connection with former soldiers, sailors and aviators, but he tells @CommonsDefence - speaking frankly - "we do not have a good plan right now to do that"

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce BREAKING: The UK does not have a national defence plan, the head of the military has said, confirming reporting by @SkyNews from two years ago that there is no longer a national plan to defend the country from armed attack on the home front.
A new one is being developed (still)

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce @SkyNews Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton is asked about national resilience to defend the country from attack - as required by Article 3 of the NATO treaty. He tells @CommonsDefence that this is not at a level that he would want it to be

The UK defence chief seems to suggest that he would like to see something like a booklet produced by Sweden for its people called "If Crisis or War Comes".
Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton agrees that more needs to be done to help make people aware of potential threats - just without being alarmist

Here are the relevant quotes from Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton admitting that the UK still has no national defence plan - despite warnings of the increased threat of armed attack on the home front.

*Bonkers* (That is me being utterly exasperated at the lack of urgency to revive some kind of iteration of the Government War Book)

CDS: No, we don't have a complete national defence plan yet.

Mike Martin MP: Should we?

CDS: Yeah, absolutely. And the government is committed to doing that

Mike Martin: Why? Why don't we have one?

CDS: I think that it is a manifestation of the peace dividend. One of the most obvious is that since the end of the Cold War, we have not prioritised those matters. And so as a consequence, the government for many years - of many hues - has not focussed its efforts on developing that that kind of plan. I'm pleased to say that partly as a consequence of what's in the Strategic Defence Review that is changing

@thetimes @TheSun @CommonsDefence @BritishArmy @RoyalNavy @RoyalAirForce @SkyNews The UK military at least will have its component of the wider national defence plan at some point this year, CDS says. The wider plan is rightly being compiled by the Cabinet Office.