GEO 436 LONDON: The professional head of Britain’’s three armed services will retire early, a leading figure in the new coalition government confirmed on Sunday, in a move which heralds significant long-term changes in military policy. The new defense secretary, Dr Liam Fox, said that the services” professional head, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, had not been sacked, but he would be replaced early, leaving his post in the autumn some months earlier than his retirement in the spring of next year. Stirrup, who began his military career as a jet fighter pilot, has been criticized for his handling of the war in Afghanistan, which has seen an expensive and bloody escalation over the past few years. A lack of troops on the ground and helicopters to move them around dogged the early years of a major additional deployment of the British army in Helmand Province in Afghanistan from 2006 onwards. Sir Bill Jeffrey, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), will also leave his job in the autumn. The British government is committed to a far-reaching Strategic Defense Review (SDR), which began at the beginning of this year. Fox said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper, “We have to be able to maintain full stability and the full confidence of the people who work for us, not least because we”re in a very dangerous armed conflict.” Fox added that Stirrup and Jeffrey would stay in post until the SDR was completed. “I”ve been discussing with them and other senior staff how we transition to the new structures,” he said. “We”ve talked about the best time to be replacing our senior staff, probably the end of the SDR in the autumn.” Stirrup had been the chief of the defense staff, professional head of the three armed services, since 2006. His term in office was extended by former prime minister Gordon Brown, in a move seen by many to stop the then head of the army, who had been critical of government policy and spending on the war in Afghanistan, from moving into the job. The SDR will be a fundamental review of Britain’’s military forces, and will look closely at how military policy can reflect foreign policy. It will set the priorities of military spending for the next 10 to 15 years. In the wake of the global financial crisis and with the new government committed to cutting the record public sector deficit of 156 billion pounds (about 250 billion U.S. dollars), military spending is an area where cuts are certain to be made. Military spending for the current year is protected from any government cuts, but after April 2011 savage cuts are expected and the capabilities of the three military services are likely to change radically. A public debate between the three service chiefs — from the navy, the army and the air force — has seen all of them attempting to present their service as essential to future defense and foreign policy. But several expensive and prestigious programs are likely to be ended or radically changed.
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