National security officials did not fully understand the ramifications of scrapping Britain's Nimrod fleet, a former defence minister has warned.
Sir Gerald Howarth said destroying the planes, which had a base at RAF Kinloss, which were under development but not completed and delivered, after the Strategic Defence and Security Review had left the biggest capability gap across the UK's defence structure.
Sir Gerald said the decision was not taken lightly but stressed the Ministry of Defence was not the only player in the decision.
He said: "I said to the National Security Advisor, Sir Peter Ricketts, does the National Security Council understand the significance of the loss of this capability? I was told 'Oh, I don't think you need to worry, minister, I think they're fully aware'.
"Well, frankly, I do not believe people in the Government have been fully aware of the significance of this loss."
Defence Minister Andrew Robathan defended the move, describing Nimrod as "one of the worst procurement disasters" he had experienced.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article