Defensiebegrotingen en -problematiek, niet NL

[Offenbach]

Zweedse minister van defensie stapt op
Uitgegeven op woensdag 05 september 2007   

(Novum/AP) - De Zweedse minister van defensie Mikael Odenberg heeft besloten op te stappen. Odenberg is met minister van financiën Anders Borg in conflict gekomen over het budget voor de Zweedse strijdkrachten en gooit de handdoek in de ring. Dit heeft de Zweedse televisiezender SVT woensdag bericht. Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt heeft het ontslag van zijn minister geaccepteerd.

Borg heeft aangekondigd dat tot 2010 vier miljard kroon (426 miljoen euro) op defensie wordt bezuinigd. De bevelhebber van de Zweedse krijgsmacht uitte daarop kritiek en kreeg steun van Odenberg. Als mogelijke opvolger van Odenberg wordt minister van handel Sten Tolgfors genoemd.

(www.nieuws.nl)

[KapiteinRob]

Ik zou anders best een moderne dictatuur in dit land willen leiden  . Maar ook daar gaat dit topic niet over, dus laten we vooral ontopic blijven.

Rob
Forumbeheerder

[Enforcer]

Het geld wordt uitgegeven aan verschillende projecten die slecht in elkaar zitten, meerdere malen budgetoverschreidend zijn, en aan ideeën die de burger al lang ziet als mislukking voordat de overheid er al mee aan de slag gaat. Deze grote incompetentie van de door de NL kiezer gekozen volksvertegenwoordigers zorgt er voor dat er bezuinigd wordt op zaken die de gemiddelde kiezer toch niet interesseren, of moet men extra betalen voor dagelijkse zaken zoals extra BTW en hoge accijnsen, om de gaten te vullen die door de incompetentie veroorzaakt zijn. Defensie is mede daardoor gewoon de pineut. Steeds minder militairen zorgen ook voor steeds minder mensen die er moeite mee hebben dat er op Defensie bezuinigd wordt. Waarom moeilijk doen, als het makkelijk kan?! 

[Lex]

ik zit hier nog eens nader over na te denken....Maar anders willen zijn is een Nederlands trekje.

Tja Ron, ook ik heb daar over zitten denken. Na al die jaren buiten de BV-NL geweest te zijn, moet ik nu (terwijl ik aan het "inburgeren" ben) constateren dat dit land meer belang hecht aan bijv. OSW en interne belangen, waardoor Defensie in mijn bescheiden optiek een ondergeschoven kind gaat worden. Van hetgeen er momenteel uitgelekt is, schijnt het zo te zijn dat Defensie "ontzien" wordt, maar wat is "ontzien"? Ik heb daar slechte gevoelens bij. Over een tweetal weken zullen we het weten.

[HermanB]

De Minister van Defensie van Zweden, Mikael Odenberg, is opgestapt naar aanleiding van verdere bezuinigings aankondigingen.

Report: Swedish defense minister resigns

© AP
2007-09-05 12:03:07 -

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg is resigning from Sweden's center-right government, Swedish public television SVT reported Wednesday.

Odenberg has been locked in disagreement with Finance Minister Anders Borg about funding for the Scandinavian country's defense forces, SVT said. The Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report, but said Odenberg would hold a news conference later Wednesday.

[marc66]

HMS Ark Royal misschien leuk voor Nederland? Tenslotte is dat al eerder gebeurd  :)

KL en KLu erop met hun tanks en vliegtuigen en, hatjee....., een beter paars platforum kun je niet hebben  :)

[KapiteinRob]

the Ministry of Defence (MoD) also gave the go-ahead to build two aircraft carriers

Dit zijn ze.

Beide (grotere) vliegdekschepen zullen HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious en HMS Ark Royal vervangen.

[Lex]

The British government has announced it will increase defense spending by 7.7 billion pounds ($15.9 billion) over the next three years. In a series of announcements 24 hours before Parliament starts its summer break, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) also gave the go-ahead to build two aircraft carriers and revealed that, following a review, it will retain the country's three major naval bases.
The defense budget settlement, part of a wider government spending review across all of its departments, will see the annual real growth rising by 1.5 percent. That is projected to give the British MoD a budget of 34 billion pounds next year, rising to 36.9 billion pounds in 2010.
The increase came as a surprise to most analysts here, who reckoned the MoD would struggle to achieve a decent real growth figure. Alex Ashbourne, a consultant at Ashbourne Strategic Consulting, said the settlement was the "best possible outcome for the defense sector."
In a related move, the government also approved a 3.9-billion-pound plan to build two 65,000-metric-ton aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.
The carriers will be built by an alliance of companies including BAE Systems, the VT Group, Babcock International and Thales UK.
Defence Ministry officials said the first of the carriers would enter service in 2014, with the second following in 2016. That's a two-year slip from the original timeline.
The carrier approval triggered BAE and VT to announce that their surface warship building operations would be merged into a joint venture. The two companies agreed on the deal several weeks ago but have been awaiting the launch of the carrier program before entering into what they called a framework agreement.
Defense officials ruled out any possibility that France might build one of the superblocs that will make up the bulk of the carrier structure — they will be built at BAE, VT and Babcock yards.
However, they didn't rule out French industry constructing some of the smaller upper-deck structures now being competed for by various yards.
Britain and France have been cooperating on their respective aircraft carrier programs. France is using the British design to build a carrier of its own to operate alongside the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, the French navy's only carrier. The two are expected to buy common equipment where possible.
In a further announcement, the MoD said it intends to keep open its main naval bases at Faslane, Plymouth and Portsmouth. A review of the naval operations had been looking at closing one of the bases that house the Royal Navy's surface ship and nuclear submarine fleets.

By ANDREW CHUTER, LONDON
Posted 07/25/07 15:41
Defense News

[Lex]

Sweden Considers Defense Budget Increase

The Swedish government has presented to lawmakers a proposed 2007 budget of $6.65 billion for the Swedish Defense Forces (SDF), an increase of $740 million from the 2006 budget.
The preliminary spending plan was presented to the Riksdag, Sweden's national legislature, on April 17, as part of the government's central budget plan for 2007.
"The Riksdag will open the 2007 budget for debate, but we do not expect that there will be any significant amendments to our defense spending plans or projects," Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg told the legislature.
The 2007 defense budget includes provision for the upgrade of 100 JAS Gripen version C and D fighters, which will form the backbone of the Swedish Air Force's domestic and international air-defense capability.
Strong defense budgets are a fundamental part of Sweden's Total Defense Strategy (TDS), Odenberg said.
"In order to help create military security in our immediate Nordic area, there must be focused and balanced development of the Swedish armed forces," he said. "Having the capacity to carry out operations both within and beyond our national borders affords influence over security policy. We are working towards a goal where our mobile rapid reaction operational units can be deployed at short notice both in Sweden and overseas."
The Swedish government's ambition to dramatically increase the strength and capability of Sweden's participation in international peace-support operations means that funds budgeted for such tasks will double to $200 million in 2007 and increase by $100 million a year up to 2009. This level of funding is sufficient to support the deployment of 2,000 troops on domestic, regional or international missions.
The 2007 defense budget is based on draft figures and calculations produced by the Ministry of Defense in October. The same calculations proposed that the defense budget for 2008 be set at $5.93 billion, and that the plan for 2009 be "provisionally" set at $6.32 billion.
"The increase in defense expenditures is needed to take account of the Swedish government's wish that our defense forces participate more in international missions," Odenberg said. "There is also the Gripen modernization program, and this will need a high level of funding."

By GERARD O'DWYER, HELSINKI
Posted 04/19/07 14:26
Defense News

[Lex]

Chirac Warns Against Cuts to Military Spending

French President Jacques Chirac said April 3 that cutting military spending would be "naive and irresponsible" as he paid his last visit to army troops before stepping down next month.
"I say today before you and with the greatest conviction and with the greatest firmness that the allocation for defense cannot be a variable for adjusting our budgetary policy," Chirac said in the southwestern city of Bayonne.
"France must guarantee its security on its own, as it has always done throughout its history, and continue to fully assume its responsibilities in the world," said Chirac after meeting with troops who recently served in Afghanistan and Ivory Coast.
"If France were to lower its guard, she would no longer be in control of security and of her destiny. Such a choice would be naive and irresponsible," he said.
The comments appeared to be a swipe at Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, who has called for scrapping plans to build a second aircraft carrier for the navy, at a cost of two to three billion euros.
Frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy, who enjoys Chirac's backing, has said he will maintain military spending at its current level, at about two percent of GDP.
Chirac is due to step down on May 16 after 12 years in office and hand over to a successor elected from the April 22 and May 6 votes.

By AGENDE FRANCE-PRESSE, BAYONNE, France
Posted 04/03/07 17:43

[Lex]

More Money, Less Mission for Italy?

As Italy's Defense Ministry signed off on its official spending package for 2007, military chief Adm. Giampaolo di Paola got a front-row seat for a slugging match between government and opposition politicians trading charges over who has done the most damage to the country's armed forces.
At a packed defense conference here this month attended by the heads of the Italian Army and Navy, opposition politician Giuseppe Cossiga said the pacifist contingent within Romano Prodi's nine-party governing coalition prevents Italy from carrying out its military missions around the world, such as in Afghanistan.
Roberta Pinotti, a Prodi ally and head of the Senate defense commission, fought back, claiming that Italy's most notorious pacifist was former Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who, she said, silently crippled the military with spending cuts during the five-year center-right government of Silvio Berlusconi.
Analysts have quibbled about Cossiga's take on Prodi's foreign policy, pointing out that Berlusconi placed caveats on the deployment of Italian troops in Afghanistan, and that the pro-military tendencies of Italian conservatives are generally tempered by the more peaceful ideals of the Vatican.
What is beyond doubt is that the Prodi government has freed up new funds for spending, thanks in part to the ceding of hundreds of unused barracks and bases, a bureaucratic feat the military tried and failed to pull off under the Berlusconi government.
The budget, given a final sign-off last week and obtained by Defense News, totals 14.45 billion euros ($19.1 billion). That's an increase of 2.34 billion euros from the 2006 spending plan and reflects 0.96 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 0.82 percent last year.
Current Defense Undersecretary Lorenzo Forcieri committed this month to finding funding by May 16 to buy eight FREMM-class frigates. Italy wants 10 of the vessels, which it is building with France, but only found funding for two on Tremonti's watch.
The new spending push has faced criticism within the center-left government, while left-wing senators have already helped defeat the coalition on a vote backing foreign policy, primarily because of Italy's presence in Afghanistan. Prodi has resisted pressure from the United States and the United Kingdom to send more troops, just as before him Berlusconi decided against sending AMX fighter/bombers. Prodi is sending unarmed Predator unmanned aerial vehicles instead.
A vote for funding of the Afghanistan mission will be another flashpoint for Prodi in the Senate at the end of March.

Trouble Ahead?

Pinotti conceded at the conference that after recent protests in Italy against the expansion of a U.S. military base in Vicenza, protests may now dog the building of an assembly line for the U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at an Italian air base at Cameri, in northern Italy.
After signing up to the production phase of the aircraft in February, Italy will spend 127.8 million euros on the program in 2007, part of an overall budget benefiting from 1.7 billion euros in supplemental funding, which should bring Italy up to date on some arrears in payments on key programs.
The investment portion of the newly approved spending plan, which covers procurement, rises 116.5 percent to 3.27 billion euros; maintenance and operations rises 28.3 percent to 2.36 billion; while personnel spending is stable at 8.8 billion euros.
The accuracy of the official comparisons are, however, clouded by funding provided by the Ministry of Industry, and loans secured last year to start work on the FREMM frigates, buy VBC wheeled armored vehicles and to support other programs.
With or without the new funding found this year, the recent travails of the military have refocused attention on the preponderance of spending on personnel, prompting talk of cutting the military down from the current 190,000.
But the speakers at the conference returned repeatedly to the nature — not the number — of Italian soldiers enlisted. When mapping out their 190,000-strong, all-professional military at the start of the decade, planners envisioned about 18,000 warrant officers and about 39,000 sergeants. This year's spending document lists more than 64,000 warrant officers and about 12,000 sergeants. Warrant officers cost more and are less likely to be deployed in missions.
"Spending on personnel accounts for more than half of the total right now, and we need to cut it back to 50 percent," said Gen. Pasquale Preziosa, head of budget planning at the military's General Staff. "But it is mainly an operational problem, since the overabundance of warrant officers means less men from lower ranks for missions."
The thousands of excess warrant officers were prompted by mass, one-off promotions in the 1990s when automatic career advancements in the military were scrapped. The Berlusconi government sought in vain to farm out the warrant officers to civilian ministries, and such a move may now prove a much tougher proposition for the Prodi government than simply selling off barracks.

By TOM KINGTON, ROME
Posted 03/19/07 18:37 
DEFENSE NEWS

[Northside]

De Inspecteur-Generaal gaat maandag met vervroegd pensioen

Vervroegd?  ???  En dat terwijl hij op 15 januar 2007 zestig jaar wordt. Anyhow, zijn vertrek brengt weer een verlichting op het defensiebudget...

Nou, ik las ooit ergens (misschien zelfs op dit forum) dat de mensen met hoge rangen pas met 65 jaar met pensioen gaan/mogen/moeten whatever. Dan is het wel vervroegd als je het met 65 jaar vergelijkt, maar met een luitenant/sergeant die met 55-58 (Marine was toch 55 jaar? KL volgens mij 55 jaar) met pensioen gaat.

2 jaar geleden was het voor officieren binnen de landmacht mogelijk om met 57 met FLO te gaan. Dat is daarna wel weer opgehoogd. Ook een manier om van het waterhoofd af te komen he.

[Lex]

13.000 jobs op de helling in het leger

Er is een politiek akkoord over wie de nieuwe stafchef van het leger wordt. Het gaat om luitenant-generaal Jean-Pol Buyse, de huidige militaire kabinetschef van minister van Landsverdediging André Flahaut (PS).

Dat verklaarde de vakbond VSOA-Syndic woensdag op basis van een "zeer goede bron".

In De Standaard stelt vice-premier Freya Van den Bossche (sp.a) echter dat de benoeming voor haar deze regeerperiode niet meer op de agenda moet komen.

Volgens de VSOA is er nu al een akkoord over de opvolging van August Van Daele, terwijl de benoeming van de stafchef normaal deel uitmaakt van het regeerakkoord. Bovendien vreest de vakbond dat Buyse "de uitvoerder wordt van de politieke droom van sp.a: de afslanking van de krijgsmacht tot 27.000 man. Concreet staan er dus 13.000 jobs op de helling", zo luidt het in een persbericht.

Een vrees die ook gevolgd wordt door de federale oppositiepartij CD&V. De partij ziet in de eventuele benoeming "een nieuwe stap in het sp.a-plan om te komen tot een sterke reductie van het leger".

"Buyse wordt in regeringskringen naar voren geschoven omdat hij de enige is die een snelle en drastische inkrimping zou voorstaan", meent CD&V-senator Wouter Beke.

Volgens Het Belang van Limburg is de regering verdeeld over wie de nieuwe stafchef wordt. De sp.a denkt volgens de krant inderdaad aan Buyse, maar Open Vld zou dat helemaal niet zien zitten. In De Standaard stelt vice-premier Freya Van den Bossche dan weer dat de benoeming van Buyse deze regeerperiode niet meer hoeft.

Gazet van Antwerpen
14-03-2007

[Lex]

LONDEN -  De Britse premier Tony Blair heeft een belangrijke stemming in het Lagerhuis over vernieuwing van de Britse vloot van atoomonderzeeërs gewonnen met steun van de rechtse oppositie. Van de parlementariërs stemden 409 voor en 161 tegen.

Zij stemden over het voorstel om 20 miljard pond (29 miljard euro) te besteden aan de nieuwe kernonderzeeboten.

Volgens het Britse SkyNews stemden circa 85 van de 390 parlementariërs van Blairs Labourpartij tegen het voorstel. Een dergelijke rebellie in zijn eigen fractie kwam Blair voor het laatst tegen toen hij in 2003 140 partijgenoten tegenover zich zag over de vraag of de Britten een oorlog tegen Irak moesten beginnen.

anp | Gepubliceerd op 14 maart 2007, 20:54

[Lex]

France: Sarkozy Would Shake Up French Defense Policy  

Nicolas Sarkozy said March 7 he would review the make-up of the French armed forces and give parliament greater powers to supervise arms deals and the secret services if he were elected president.
Laying out his defense program, Sarkozy promised to maintain military spending at 2 percent of gross domestic product and backed the largest armament project under review in France, the building of a second aircraft carrier.
He also urged the European Union to adopt a unified position over controversial U.S. plans for a missile defense shield.
Sarkozy told a defense conference organized by his ruling conservative UMP party that defense policy needed to be thoroughly reviewed in light of changing global threats. The last review was carried out in 1994, he said.
"Since then, events have considerably changed the geopolitical environment in which we live," said the interior minister, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of the April and May election.
The defense review would include a "systematic audit" of France's main armaments programs, he said. France is a nuclear power and carried out its first nuclear test in 1960.
Among the projects Sarkozy backed were an anti-missile system and the NH90 transport helicopter program.
The French president serves as commander-in-chief, controls the secret services and can deploy troops around the world for strategic missions such as peacekeeping operations.
"I intend to strengthen the powers of parliament in terms of controlling the secret services, approving the presence and modalities of the overseas missions of our armed forces ... launching major armament programs and ratifying defense accords," he said.
National Security Council
Sarkozy said he wanted to create a National Security Council to advise the president on defense issues.
"This seems to me to be essential so that the president of the republic has different elements of expertise and counter-expertise that are vital for decision-making."
Sarkozy's main rival, Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, has also pledged to maintain defense spending but says the second aircraft carrier should be built within the framework of a European defense program. Sarkozy said this was unrealistic.
"There won't be any legitimate European policy entity to decide and respond to the use of such equipment for a long time to come," he said.
However, he said defense would become an increasingly pan-European issue and not just decided at a national level. Because of this, he thought Europe should have a unified position over the U.S. defense shield.
Washington wants to set up a radar system in the Czech Republic and a missile battery in Poland as part of a shield that would counter missiles fired by what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
"I do not see how one can say that it is simply the problem of the Czech Republic or Poland and that it's not a problem for all of Europe, unless, that is, we give up all ambition for a European defense policy," Sarkozy said.

By REUTERS, PARIS
03/07/07 15:40