Made in America
Sir: I am concerned that our two new aircraft carriers are to be equipped with US-supplied aircraft and Chinook helicopters, while the future replacement for the Royal Navy's Trident submarine-borne ICBSs will also depend on US-supplied technology. Will not such dual dependence effectively bind us close into American world strategy? No doubt the French-built equivalents cost much more than buying off the shelf, and may well be technically inferior, but at least they are almost entirely French from factory to the field. This must surely strengthen French freedom of action in regard to global policy. It may well have proved a major factor in France's wise decision not to join in George W Bush's catastrophic invasion of Iraq.
We should always remember that defence procurement is not a separate entity unto itself but an integral part of a nation's 'total strategy'.
Con-elli Barnett Norwich
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