RAF threatened by equipment cuts

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The UK Royal Air Force is so heavily committed to activities in Afghanistan that it would be unable to launch a campaign such as its Operation Telic effort staged during the second Gulf war, one of the service's highest ranking officers has revealed.

"Our ability to do Telic tomorrow just isn't there any more," says assistant chief of the air staff Air Vice Marshal Tim Anderson. "All our high-end systems are out fighting the Taliban."

Anderson has also voiced fears over the threat of possible equipment cuts as a result of a new Strategic Defence Review expected to be launched next year. "Everything that we have we need," he notes.

With the RAF expecting the review process to have "a very financial focus", Anderson says there will be "some really rather painful decisions in terms of the way in which we deliver defence in the future".

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it would be interesting to know if the same officer is confident that we are able to defend our own territory or meet NATO commitments at this time and after the next round of cuts.

Geoff