Chief of defence staff: UK will remain ‘formidable’ fighting force

General Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff, defends strategic defence spending review (SDSR) and says UK will remain a "formidable" fighting force:

"The SDSR was based on an assessment of the threats we face now and in the future. We have had to take some tough decisions, but as we move towards Future Force 2020 we will remain a formidable fighting force on the world stage. We will remain capable of sustaining our operations in Afghanistan and Libya before re-balancing will give us the flexibility to maintain our ability to project power across our spheres of interest.

"We are continually working with our international allies to share operational requirements, including utilising basing and overflight rights for Libya – measures we rightly assessed in the SDSR could be relied upon to mitigate capability gaps."