Summary
Jane's Defence Weekly carries an interview with the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, on the UK's plans to rebuild its aircraft carrier capability. | BBC Online has a report on the first school with teaching staff who have all served in the Armed Forces that is set to open in Oldham next year. | The Sun reports that an underage soldier has deployed to Afghanistan. | The Financial Times reports that the defence industry is bracing itself for dramatic spending cuts as the US begins to trim its Defence Budget. | The Guardian reports that RAF Northolt could be sold and flights into the base diverted to nearby Heathrow Airport. | The Times reports that protesters have marched on the British Embassy in Buenos Aires to protest at the recent comments made by Prime Minister David Cameron. | Various newspapers report that military records show that people with the surnames White, Walker and Thomas were most likely to have been awarded a medal during the First World War. | The Daily Star carries a feature on the team from Row2Recovery who have completed their journey across the Atlantic to raise funds for injured Service personnel. | The Sun reports that Typhoon jets and Puma and Lynx helicopters are on a three-day exercise in Yorkshire to train for their role in boosting Olympic security. | The Mirror reports that Defence Chiefs are spending nearly £1bn on redundancy payments to staff who are losing their jobs under defence cuts.
Signaller Ian Sartorius-Jones dies in Afghanistan
It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of Signaller Ian Gerard Sartorius-Jones from 20th Armoured Brigade Headquarters and Signal Squadron (200) on Tuesday 24 January 2012 at Forward Operating Base Khar Nikah in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province, Afghanistan. Click here to read more.
Joint Strike Fighter
The Times reports today that the MOD is questioning whether it should go ahead with plans to procure a fleet of new Joint Strike Fighter jets due to speculated delays in the programme. The paper also wrongly claims that the MOD declined to comment, when, in fact, the reporter was sent a statement on the issue and verbally briefed on inaccuracies in the story.
The MOD is taking delivery of our first Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) jets for test and evaluation purposes this year and is committed to purchasing the Carrier Variant of the JSF. Our plans remain on track to have a new Carrier Strike capability from around 2020.
The Defence Secretary recently met his US counterpart to discuss a number of issues including the Joint Strike Fighter and following the meeting we are confident that the US Defence Review will not impact upon our plans for regenerating Carrier Strike. An agreement was signed that will see the US and UK work closely on joint training and the integration of our carrier programmes.
Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Peter Luff said: "We continue to plan on delivery of JCA [Joint Combat Aircraft] capability coherently with the Carrier from 2020 as noted in the SDSR [Strategic Defence and Security Review]. However, we will not set a firm In Service Date until after our next Main Gate decision in 2013."
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