Welcome

click here for more information.

Welcome to the website of the United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA). The UKNDA has been formed to support our Armed Forces and to campaign for “sufficient, appropriate and fully funded Armed Forces to provide an effective defence of our country, its people, their security and vital interests wherever they may be.”

Britain's Armed Forces: Under-funded and overstretched

Britain’s Armed Forces are chronically under-funded and over-stretched. Not since the 1930s have our Navy, Army and Air Force been so starved of the resources they need. Our Forces have been slashed in half over the past two decades alone – yet in the same period our military commitments have vastly increased. This is a disaster for the men and women of our Armed Forces – and a catastrophe for our nation.

Inadequate equipment means that lives have been lost unnecessarily. Pay and conditions for our servicemen and women have fallen well below those of their civilian equivalents – to the point where a traffic warden or cleaner can earn more than a soldier. And due to funding cuts, long-overdue improvements to housing for service families have been delayed or cancelled. The nation’s Covenant with the Armed Forces has been broken.

Since the ‘credit crunch’, major defence projects have been delayed or cancelled in order to save money. While billions of pounds have been poured into propping up the financial services industry, defence funding has been severely cut back. Yet, cutting defence at a time of recession is like cancelling your insurance policy – You never know when it will be needed, and by then it will be too late!

Defence Funding - The Facts

• Since the 1980s, core defence spending as a share of the nation’s wealth has dropped from 5% of GDP to less than 2.5%.
• The size of our Armed Forces, in numbers of personnel, ships and aircraft, has been cut in half.
• The Army is now at least 4,000 below its required trained strength and is chronically short of equipment – particularly helicopters and armoured vehicles.
• The Royal Navy has been halved in size over the past two decades. It is especially short of frigates and destroyers. (In 1998 the minimum essential requirement was set at 32 but by early 2009 the number of available destroyers and frigates had dropped to 22.)
• The RAF does not have enough aircraft to provide effective air support for current operations.
• Any further military commitments would stretch the Armed Forces far beyond their capabilities.