Today’s defence related news includes coverage of the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Donald Trump, MOD’s equipment plans and RAF Lossiemouth.
Prime Minister’s meeting with President Trump
The media widely report on the meeting between the Prime Minister and President Donald Trump. The Financial Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and others confirmed that the two leaders discussed a wide variety of issues, including their contries mutual commitment to NATO and the importance of working together to counter terrorism and threats such as Daesh.
MOD Equipment Plan
The Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail follow on from yesterday’s coverage of the MOD’s equipment plan annual summary and the National Audit Office’s report on the Equipment plan.
Minister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin said:
I welcome the NAO’s report into the Department’s Equipment Plan. SDSR 2015 announced a rising Defence budget and a ten-year £178 billion Equipment Plan which will deliver the best kit for our Armed Forces at the best value for the taxpayer. We are focused on maintaining an affordable programme and delivering the efficiencies we need to reinvest in cutting-edge ships, planes, versatile strike brigades, and greater cyber capabilities, so that our Armed Forces have the equipment they need to keep the UK safe and secure.
RAF Lossiemouth
The Daily Mirror, the Sun, the Scotsman and the Herald all report that two RAF fighter jets passed within 300ft of each other near RAF Lossiemouth in August 2016.
An MOD Spokesperson said:
Millions of flights are made in UK airspace each year but despite that only a very small number of air proximity reports are made of which even less identified that the safety of our aircraft may have been compromised, underlining the professionalism of the aviators that use it.
Safety continues to be of paramount importance and we continue to work hard to ensure that air safety considerations are at the core of all our aviation activity. We welcome all recommendations made in all airprox reports, which are designed to ensure we learn the lessons of any incidents and do whatever we can to prevent them from happening again.
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