15 February 2010: BBC News
By Caroline Wyatt, BBC defence correspondent
The role of the RAF in current and future warfare has been vigorously defended by the head of the service.
Air
Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton said air and space power were not an
optional luxury but the foundation for any "military endeavour".
The speech was part of a debate over Britain's future defence needs, ahead of a post-election spending review.
There have been questions over whether the UK will still have three separate services in the decades to come.
He cautioned against taking the current conflict in Afghanistan as
Britain's only or main template for the forces it needs for the future.
"Even if we are faced with conflicts that are similar in
character to Afghanistan in the future... we cannot assume that there
will be the political or popular appetite to fight them in the same way
again.
"We need to think very carefully whether our Afghanistan
era force structure is a model for the future. Do we want or need to
put all our eggs in that particular basket?"
Cyber-warfare
Sir Stephen's comments followed speeches from his Army and Royal Navy counterparts.
He
described his views on the future nature of warfare as "complementing
and not contradicting" those of his fellow service chiefs.
His
emphasis was on the uniqueness of air power, its ability to shape
campaigns and the huge advantage it gives Britain's forces, not least
in the current campaign in Afghanistan.
He made clear his view
that the RAF's role was a much broader one than many realise - whether
in a support role, intelligence-gathering, reconnaissance or close air
support.
'Exchequer bare'
The Air Chief Marshal
also said the RAF was keen to enhance its current role - building on
its ability to use and interpret information networks.
RAF
planes already gather intelligence and target information, but he
suggested the air force would be well-placed to develop those further
in areas such as cyber-warfare.
He acknowledged that the "exchequer was bare".
But
he said Britain must think very carefully about its future capabilities
and maximise the advantages it already had in air and space power,
which he described as "an essential defining capability".
The
questions a new government and those at the top in the Ministry of
Defence will have to answer during a strategic defence review is what
kind of warfare will dominate, how extensive the reforms will be, and
what Britain can actually afford.
These larger questions are
the same ones the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope and the
Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Army, General Sir David
Richards have been addressing - with rather differing visions - over
the past week.
General Richards believes Britain needs to
invest in fewer big-ticket weapons systems and must continue to prepare
for wars "amongst the peoples", while ensuring it has more and
better-trained 'boots on the ground'.
Meanwhile his Navy
counterpart believes Britain must retain its naval clout in order to
secure its key commercial and security interests.
