Making news today, the Prime Minister has announced a £390 million deal to provide armoured vehicle support will create 250 new jobs in Wales.
Royal Navy engineers
The Financial Times reports that the Royal Navy offers a one-off bonus to retain nuclear engineers as a countermeasure to prevent the loss of vital staff who work on the UK's fleet of nuclear submarines.
The Government is working hard to tackle the skills gap, and last year announced the intention to open a new elite college offering skills training for the nuclear power sector, alongside £8 million of funding to train future nuclear engineers.
In addition, the MOD and the Royal Navy has a range of initiatives in place to ensure we have the right skills and personnel in place to operate our submarines and nuclear infrastructure entirely safely.
A Royal Navy spokesperson said:
The Royal Navy is committed to a range of innovative measures designed to address nationally acknowledged challenges in recruiting and retaining engineering and technical expertise in a highly competitive employment market. These measures are already producing results allowing the Royal Navy to continue to deliver maritime capability where it is needed.
RAF-US Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
An article in The Guardian raises questions about British military embedded with US forces. According to the article, a joint US-UK Defence memo provides details of RAF crew assigned to a US unit conducting unmanned air strikes and the paper suggests that evidence of UK involvement in strikes in Pakistan or Yemen could open up British military personnel to legal challenges.
A small number of UK personnel are currently embedded within the US Remotely Piloted Air System programme but they are not engaging in actions that would be in breach of UK or international law. Our full position is as follows.
An MOD Spokesperson said:
UK Forces are regularly embedded in the forces of other nations under long-standing exchange programmes with allies, where small numbers of UK personnel act under the operational command of host nations. When embedded, UK personnel are effectively operating as foreign troops.
A small number of UK personnel are currently embedded within the US RPAS programme, supporting Reaper aircraft in roles which are either engaged only in the launch and recovery phase or in non-operational environments. It is for the US to comment on details of their unit’s operational activity. But as the Secretary of State made clear to Parliament on Monday, UK personnel will always operate within UK and International law.
Deaths during training or exercise
The Daily Mail reports that there have been 125 deaths during Armed Forces exercises in the past 15 years, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws. According to the paper, this amounts to one death every six weeks. Our statement is below.
We regret every death that has occurred on training exercises and while health and safety measures have improved over the years, we will continue to ensure that everything is done to reduce the risk to personnel and to prevent future tragedies. It will always be necessary to train and test our military personnel to the highest possible level so that they can meet the challenges to National Security that we face both in the UK and overseas. Achieving this end does involve individuals having to push themselves and take some risk. However, as an organisation we must ensure that this is balanced with the need to ensure these risks are effectively mitigated.
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