‘Strikes on Libya can go on for as long as we choose’

Britain can sustain its military intervention in Libya for “as long as we choose to”, the head of the armed forces has said.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, dismissed suggestions the scale of operations might not be sustainable much beyond the summer.

His comments came after Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the Royal Navy, warned the government would have to make “challenging decisions” if the mission lasted more than six months.

Gen Richards said it was “not correct” that the UK could maintain operations for only another three months and suggested the First Sea Lord had been misunderstood.

“He was actually answering a different question that’s been misconstrued, but we can sustain this operation as long as we choose to, absolutely clear on that,” he said.

Critics of the Strategic Defence and Security Review have seized on the lack of an aircraft carrier for the mission against Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi’s forces to back their case. Rear Admiral Terry Loughran, a former commander of the Ark Royal, said an aircraft carrier with Harriers on board would have been “invaluable” in the Libya conflict.

He said: “With a ship off the coast, you get almost instantaneous response from the Harriers on board – literally 20 minutes and they are over the area.

“If you are flying them – as we are presently doing, at huge expense – from Italy, it is going to take you an hour or more to get the aircraft there, not without a huge air refuelling operation.”

Deploying the Ark Royal and its Harriers to the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast would have been “immensely cheaper” than stationing Tornados and Typhoons in Italy, said Admiral Loughran.

“You are not having all those fuelling costs and all the basing costs and the huge logistic train of supporting people there,” he said.

“Running the Harrier force is considerably cheaper than running Tornados or Typhoons.”

He added: “To be perfectly honest, I think events have shown – and will have shown the Prime Minister and Liam Fox – that we have made some wrong decisions, but there is only so many decisions we can revisit.

“We need to remember that we are a maritime nation with maritime interests worldwide.

“We have now reduced the numbers of destroyers and frigates and submarines to such a low level that this maritime nation can’t sustain a tinpot operation like that going on in Libya.”