Agency name | United Kingdom Ministry of Defence |
---|---|
Type | Department |
Seal | MinistryofDefence.svg |
Seal width | 150px |
Seal caption | Ministry of Defence Combined Services badge |
Formed | 1964 (As modern department) |
Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
Headquarters | Whitehall, Westminster, London |
Employees | Over 80,000 civilian staff |
Budget | £35.165 billion (2009/10) |
Minister1 name | The Rt Hon. Dr. Liam Fox, MP |
Minister1 pfo | Secretary of State for Defence |
Chief1 name | General Sir David Richards |
Chief1 position | Chief of the Defence Staff |
Chief2 name | Ursula Brennan |
Chief2 position | Permanent Secretary |
Website | http://www.mod.uk |
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.
The MoD states that its principal objectives are to defend the United Kingdom and its interests and to strengthen international peace and stability. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the MoD does not foresee any short-term conventional military threat; rather, it has identified weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism, and failed and failing states as the overriding threats to the UK's interests. The MoD also manages day to day running of the armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement.
Winston Churchill, on forming his government in 1940, created the office of Minister of Defence to exercise ministerial control over the Chiefs of Staff Committee and to co-ordinate defence matters. The post was held by the Prime Minister of the day until Clement Attlee's government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act of 1946. The new ministry was headed by a Minister of Defence who possessed a seat in the Cabinet. The three existing service Ministers — the Secretary of State for War, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Secretary of State for Air — remained in direct operational control of their respective services, but ceased to attend Cabinet.
From 1946 to 1964 five Departments of State did the work of the modern Ministry of Defence: the Admiralty, the War Office, the Air Ministry, the Ministry of Aviation, and an earlier form of the Ministry of Defence. These departments merged in 1964; the defence functions of the Ministry of Aviation Supply merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971.
{| class=wikitable ! colspan=2 | Minister ! Rank ! Portfolio |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | The Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP | Secretary of State | Overall responsibility and strategic direction |- | width=1 style="background:#FFD700" | | Nick Harvey MP | Minister of State | Armed forces, operations |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | Gerald Howarth MP | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | International security strategy, defence exports |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | The Rt Hon Andrew Robathan MP | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Defence personnel, welfare and veterans |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | Peter Luff MP | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Defence equipment, support and technology |- | width=1 style="background:#0087DC" | | Lord Astor of Hever DL | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State | Lords spokesman |}
{| class=wikitable ! rowspan=2 | Key | style="background:#0087DC" | | Conservative |- | style="background:#FFD700" | | Liberal Democrat |}
===Chiefs of the Defence Staff=== The current Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of the British Armed Forces, is General Sir David Richards, British Army. He is supported by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff and by the professional heads of the three services of HM Armed Forces.
There are also three Deputy Chiefs of the Defence Staff with particular remits, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Capability), Deputy CDS (Personnel and Training) and Deputy CDS (Operations). The Surgeon General, represents the Defence Medical Services on the Defence Staff, and is the clinical head of that service. Additionally, there are a number of Assistant Chiefs of Defence Staff, including the Defence Services Secretary in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, who is also the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel).
The MOD has since been regarded as a leader in elaborating the post-Cold War organising concept of “Defence Diplomacy”.
In November 2010, the MOD released its first ever business plan.
Sir Richard Dannatt criticised a remnant "Cold War mentality", with military expenditures based on retaining a capability against a direct conventional strategic threat; He said currently only 10% of the MoD's equipment programme budget between 2003 and 2018 was to be invested in the "land environment" - at a time when Britain was engaged in land-based wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. cites an article from the Financial Times website stating that the Chief of Defence Materiel — General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue had instructed staff within Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S;) through an internal memorandum to reprioritize the approvals process to focus on supporting current operations over the next three years; deterrence related programmes; those that reflect defence obligations both contractual or international; and those where production contracts are already signed. The report also cites concerns over potential cuts in the defence science and technology research budget; implications of inappropriate estimation of Defence Inflation within budgetary processes; underfunding in the Equipment Programme; and a general concern over striking the appropriate balance over a short-term focus (Current Operations) and long-term consequences of failure to invest in the delivery of future UK defence capabilities on future combatants and campaigns. In the same article the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff — Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, Royal Navy, acknowledged that there was not enough money within the defence budget and it is preparing itself for tough decisions and the potential for cutbacks. the defence budget for 2009 is "more than 10% overspent" (figures cannot be verified) and the paper states that this had caused Gordon Brown to say that the defence spending must be cut. The MoD has been investing in IT to cut costs and improve services for its personnel.
Top Level Budget holder organisations:
Executive Agencies:
Trading Funds:
Non-departmental public bodies:
The defence estate is divided as training areas & ranges (78.1%), airfields (7%), research & development (4.9%), storage & depots (3.1%), barracks & camps (3.1%), miscellaneous (1.8%), radio sites (1.7%), and naval bases (0.3%). These are largely managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.
The headquarters of the MoD are in Whitehall and are now known as Main Building. This structure is neoclassical in style and was originally built between 1938 and 1959 to designs by Vincent Harris to house the Air Ministry and the Board of Trade. The northern entrance in Horse Guards Avenue is flanked by two monumental statues, Earth and Water, by Charles Wheeler. Opposite stands the Ghurka Monument, sculpted by Philip Jackson and unveiled in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II. Within it is the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial, and nearby are memorials to the Fleet Air Arm and RAF (to its east, facing the riverside). A major refurbishment of the building was completed under a PFI contract by Skanska in 2004.
Henry VIII's wine cellar at the Palace of Whitehall, built in 1514–1516, is in the basement of Main Building, and is used for entertainment. The entire arched brick structure of the cellar was moved a short distance in 1949.
United Kingdom Category:Veterans' affairs ministries Category:Military units and formations established in 1964 Category:Ministries established in 1964 Category:1964 establishments in the United Kingdom
cy:Y Weinyddiaeth Amddiffyn (DU) de:Verteidigungsministerium des Vereinigten Königreichs fr:Ministère de la Défense (Royaume-Uni) nl:Ministerie van Defensie (Verenigd Koninkrijk) ja:国防省 (イギリス) no:Forsvarsministeriet (Storbritannia) sr:Министарство одбране Уједињеног Краљевства fi:Yhdistyneen kuningaskunnan puolustusministeriö sv:Storbritanniens försvarsministerium zh:國防部 (英國)This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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