Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

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Ministry of Defence Combined Services Badge

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.

The MoD states that its principal objectives are to defend the United Kingdom and its interests and to strengthen international peace and stability. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War the MoD does not foresee any short-term conventional military threat; rather, it has identified weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism, and failed and failing states as the overriding threats to the UK's interests. The MoD also manages day to day running of the armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement.

History

During the 1920s and 1930s, British civil servants and politicians, looking back at the performance of the state during World War I, concluded that there was a need for greater co-ordination between the three Services that made up the armed forces of the United Kingdom—the British Army, the Royal Navy, and the Royal Air Force. The formation of a united ministry of defence was rejected by Prime Minister David Lloyd George's coalition government in 1921; but the Chiefs of Staff Committee was formed in 1923, for the purposes of inter-Service co-ordination. As rearmament became a concern during the 1930s, Stanley Baldwin created the position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. Lord Chatfield held the post until the fall of Neville Chamberlain's government in 1940; his success was limited by his lack of control over the existing Service departments and his limited political influence.

Winston Churchill, on forming his government in 1940, created the office of Minister of Defence to exercise ministerial control over the Chiefs of Staff Committee and to co-ordinate defence matters. The post was held by the Prime Minister of the day until Clement Attlee's government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act of 1946. The new ministry was headed by a Minister of Defence who possessed a seat in the Cabinet. The three existing service Ministers — the Secretary of State for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Secretary of State for Air — remained in direct operational control of their respective services, but ceased to attend Cabinet.

From 1946 to 1964 five Departments of State did the work of the modern Ministry of Defence: the Admiralty, the War Office, the Air Ministry, the Ministry of Aviation, and an earlier form of the Ministry of Defence. These departments merged in 1964; the defence functions of the Ministry of Aviation Supply merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971.

Defence policy

The 1998 Strategic Defence Review and the 2003 Delivering Security in a Changing World White Paper outlined the following posture for the British Armed Forces:

• The ability to support three simultaneous small- to medium-scale operations, with at least one as an enduring peace-keeping mission (e.g. Kosovo). These forces must be capable of representing the UK as lead nation in any coalition operations.
• The ability, at longer notice, to deploy forces in a large-scale operation while running a concurrent small-scale operation.

Departmental Agencies

The following executive agencies report directly to Ministers in the Ministry of Defence.

• Army Base Repair Organisation ¹
• Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency ¹
• British Forces Post Office ¹
• Defence Analytical Services Agency ¹
• Defence Aviation Repair Agency ¹
• Defence Bills Agency ²
• Defence Communication Services Agency ¹
• Defence Equipment & Support ²
• Defence Estates ³
• Defence Medical, Education and Training Agency ³
• Defence Science and Technology Laboratory ²
• Defence Storage and Distribution Agency ¹
• Defence Transport and Movements Agency ¹
• Defence Vetting Agency ¹

• Disposal Services Agency ²
• Duke of York's Royal Military School ³
• Meteorological Office ³
• Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency, which includes the Ministry of Defence Police ³
• People, Pay and Pensions Agency ³
• Royal Navy Supply and Transport Service
• Service Children's Education ³
• United Kingdom Hydrographic Office ³
• Veterans Agency ³

¹ reporting to the Minister of State for the Armed Forces.

² reporting to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister of State for Defence Equipment & Support

³ reporting to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans

Property portfolio

Main Building—The Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, Westminster, London

Main Building, from the air

A British armed forces recruitment centre in Oxford.

The Ministry of Defence is one of the United Kingdom's largest landowners, with hundreds of sites across the country, including military training grounds, ranges, storage and distribution centres, barracks, military-family accommodation and administrative buildings, etc. These are largely managed by the Defence Estates agency. A 2005 National Audit Office report values the MoD's estate at £15,300,000,000 and puts the area covered at 2,400 square kilometres (927 square miles) (or just under 1% of UK's land area). This figure has been much reduced since the Second World War and continues to diminish through rationalisation of bases, etc. Of this, a third is classified as "built"; two thirds are "rural" (mostly training areas whose natural environments have been little altered). The National Audit Office also estimates annual expenditure on the defence estate at £1,300,000,000.

Henry VIII's wine cellar at the Palace of Whitehall, built in 1514–1516, is in the basement of the Ministry of Defence headquarters (commonly known as "Main Building") in Whitehall, and is used for entertainment. The entire structure was moved a short distance in 1949. The Main Building is neoclassical in style and was built between 1938 and 1959. Within it is the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial, and nearby are memorials to Britain's Gurkha troops (to its north) and to the Fleet Air Arm and RAF (to its east, facing the riverside).

Fraud

Main article: Gordon Foxley

The most notable fraud conviction was that of Gordon Foxley, head of defence procurement at the Ministry of Defence from 1981 to 1984. Police claimed he received at least £3.5m in total in corrupt payments substantial bribes from overseas arms contractors aiming to influence the allocation of contracts.

Criticism

Chinook procurement

The MoD has been criticised for an ongoing fiasco, where it has spent hundreds of millions on Chinooks not fit for use, 13 years after they were ordered. A National Audit Office report reveals that for seven years the helicopters have been stored in air conditioned hangars in Britain while troops in Afghanistan have been forced to rely on helicopters which are flying with safety faults. By the time they are airworthy, the total cost of the project could be as much as £500m.

...the most incompetent procurement of all time...might as well have bought eight turkeys.

— Parliamentary public accounts committee

In 1995 eight Special Operation MH3 Chinook helicopters were ordered from Boeing but officials did not include in the contract access to source codes to test their airworthiness;

In 2001 the helicopters were delivered and found not to comply with airworthiness standards. The MoD was told they could only be flown safely up to 500ft from the ground on a clear, sunny day. They were put into store in hangars in Boscombe Down;

In 2002 at an addition cost of £32.3m, less sophisticated Mk2 Chinook helicopters were equipped for night vision flying instead - but the infra-red computer screens partly obscured front and landing vision, making them less safe to fly;

In 2004 the MoD decided on a high-level upgrade at a cost of £215m to get the aircraft airworthy by 2008. But it took much longer than anticipated to get the programme organised with the contractor and it became clear the helicopters would not fly until 2011;

In 2007 the MoD cancelled the upgrade, at a cost of £17.25m, because it would take too long. It opted for a cheaper programme with a new night vision system, costing £53m. That cost later more than doubled to £112m, with a further, unknown sum for night vision equipment;

In April 2008, a £90m contract was signed with Boeing for a "quick fix" solution, so they can fly by 2010: QinetiQ will downgrade the Chinooks - stripping out some of their more advanced equipment.

See also

• United Kingdom budget
• Gordon Foxley

References

• Chester, D. N and Willson, F. M. G. The Organisation of British Central Government 1914–1964: Chapters VI and X (2nd edition). London: George Allen & Unwin, 1968.

External links

• Official website
• Defence Image Database
• Defencemanagement.com - Defence News

Video clips

• MoD YouTube channel