CREAKING MILITARY

Relentless fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan have left more than half of the ships, aircraft and ground units of the Armed Forces with “serious or critical weaknesses” in the UK. Britain’s military is creaking under the strain of ongoing operations and is being forced to deploy faulty equipment, suspend training and cancel the replacement of outdated kit, the report by the Commons Defence Committee says. The report, which comes ahead of a post-election Strategic Defence Review, concludes: “For some considerable period now … the Armed Forces have operated above the overall level of concurrent operations which they are resourced and structured to sustain over time.”