Harrier pilots bombard David Cameron over defence cuts
DAVID Cameron came face-to-face with the anger of Armed Forces personnel yesterday as the Government announced swingeing defence cuts.
The Prime Minister was confronted by a Royal Navy Harrier pilot about the decision to scrap the famous jump-jet fighter.
Lieutenant Commander Kris Ward told him: “I am a Harrier pilot and I have flown 140-odd missions in Afghanistan and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that, please, sir?”
Military chiefs saw the protest as particularly poignant as the pilot’s father was also a Harrier pilot and a hero veteran of the Falklands war. The confrontation flared as Mr Cameron visited the operations room at the Armed Forces’ Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood to explain the decision to slash the defence budget.
He thanked the pilot for “everything” he had done for the country but insisted it was “right to keep the Typhoon as our principal ground attack aircraft in Afghanistan and it is right to retire the Harrier”.
Later, Lt Cdr Ward’s father Commander Nigel “Sharkey” Ward warned the cuts could spark an “exodus of the cream of our flying boys”.