Recommendation 13

We are very concerned that the limited resource budget allocated under the Spending Review for the remainder of this Parliament will be insufficient to properly operate and maintain the full fleet. We were not convinced by the Department’s assertion that “the resource budget is adequate to ensure that we maintain the crewing and effectiveness of those additional resources”. If this is not remedied, there will almost certainly have to be a compensating reduction in maintenance of or operations by the aircraft carriers or other vessels. If the Navy attempts to cut the payroll costs element of RDEL by reducing personnel numbers, this could make it even harder to bring in the new classes of vessels in the 2030s as planned. Defence spending must increase to allow the Navy’s resource budget to beat inflation and to accommodate any new cost model for the aircraft carriers.