British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was in the US last week. Nothing unusual there you might expect. British Defence Secretaries do indeed see their American counterparts pretty regularly. What struck me about this visit though was the focus on the future.
For ten years we have been the closest partners in the military operations of the post-9/11 era. This has meant an ongoing dialogue with Secretaries Rumsfeld, Gates and Panetta about how we succeed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Of course there was more of that with Secretary Panetta in the Pentagon last Wednesday. This is a critical time for transition in Afghanistan – as evidenced by the Prime Minister’s talks with Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.
But Mr Hammond also travelled to Patuxent River Air Station, MD to see the Joint Strike Fighter in action, before moving on to Texas to receive the UK’s first F35-B from Lockheed Martin. This is a truly symbolic moment for the UK as we build our forces for the future. British pilots will now begin testing the aircraft to identify what we need to do to bring the JSF into service later in the decade. Secretaries Hammond and Panetta also discussed UK and US co-operation on naval aviation – which will deliver a key element of Britain’s future force. The last leg of the visit was Greenville, Texas where he saw progress on the UK Airseeker aircraft – another key piece of Future Force 2020.
Each of these stops was about looking to our security needs of the future and seeing how our Armed Forces will work with their American counterparts long after the combat role in Afghanistan is over. Mr Hammond described his views on future UK/US defence co-operation at an event organised by the Center for New American Security. There he said:
“The strength of our alliance is based on the twin pillars of common values and common interests… But it is our Defence relationship which stands out.
“Forged in the furnaces of the world wars of the 20th century; Maintained through the long watches of the Cold War; And now tempered over the last decade in the sands of Iraq and in the shadow of the Hindu Kush.
“But our Defence relationship is not a backward-looking one. We are about to enter a new phase in our long history together. As President Obama said in January “we are turning a page on a decade of war”.
“As we drawdown from this decade of continuous operations – and continuous military co-operation, the circumstances are changing.
“And so our relationship needs to evolve in response”.
You can read more about it on our website.