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Liam Fox says he is determined to get costs at the MoD under control
The UK will remain "a big contributor" to Nato, despite expected "sacrifices" at the Ministry of Defence, Defence Secretary Liam Fox says.
His comments came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the planned cuts were a "worry" to the US.
Dr Fox warned in the Times of a "hard road ahead" but said much of the blame lay with the previous government.
A National Audit Office report says defence spending in Labour's last year rose by £3.3bn more than planned.
</div> The Spending Review will be announced next week, and the Treasury has been pushing for a reduction of up to 10% on the £37bn MoD budget between 2011 and 2015.
The first defence review for 12 years is being carried out at the same time as the spending review, with deep budget cuts causing more tensions than in any other Whitehall department.
Mr Fox wrote in his editorial for the Times: "Every department must make its own contribution to deficit reduction and the MoD is no exception.
"It will be painful, and sacrifices will be made, but we must get the economy back on track and we must get the defence programme balanced.
"There is a hard road ahead of us, but make no mistake, at the end of the process Britain will have the capabilities it needs for the future, we will continue to be a big contributor to Nato and our interests will be more secure."
Mrs Clinton, visiting Brussels for a Nato meeting, had admitted on Thursday that the scale of the coalition government's planned cuts was causing concern in Washington.
"It does [worry me], and the reason it does is because I think we do have to have an alliance where there is a commitment to the common defence," she said.
"Nato has been the most successful alliance for defensive purposes in the history of the world, I guess, but it has to be maintained.
"Each country has to be able to make its appropriate contributions."
In its report, published on Friday, the National Audit Office (NAO) was critical of the way the MoD had been run in the previous year, saying the approved budgets had not been realistic, leading to a £3.3bn "black hole".
The RAF's Typhoon fighter jets, which rose by £2.7bn, and the Royal Navy's two planned new aircraft carriers which went up by £650m, were the main areas of overspending.
The cost of the carriers is understood to have risen to £5.4bn. It was due to the decision in 2008 to slow down the programme so as to spread the spending over a longer period, the NAO said.
The NAO said the increase in the cost of the Typhoons was because of a decision to buy 16 additional aircraft in order to meet the UK's contractual obligations under the four-nation Eurofighter programme with Germany, Italy and Spain.
The cost of building two aircraft carriers rose by £650m
The report also said that decisions to progressively reduce the number of planned new Nimrod MR4A reconnaissance aircraft from 21 to nine had led to a tripling of the cost of each individual aircraft.
Mr Fox said the report showed that the MoD has been "living beyond its means for too long".
He said: "Some projects would actually be more expensive to cancel than to continue - which is an absurdity that you would only really find made in Whitehall.
"And some projects we may simply have to accept that we need them and we have to continue to spend on them, but some we may have to decide simply to pull the plug, because we can't continue in the current environment to afford them - despite the amount of money that has been sunk into them so far."
The NAO's Tim Banfield said the result of the "black hole" meant taxpayers "are having to pay more than they should have done for the defence equipments that are being delivered.
"It means for the Armed services that they don't get as much equipment, and they don't get it as quickly as they should do."
This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Liam Fox says he is determined to get costs at the MoD under control The UK will remain "a big contributor" to Nato, despite expected "sacrifices" at the Ministry of Defence, Defence Secretary Liam Fox says.
His comments came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the planned cuts were a "worry" to the US.
Dr Fox warned in the Times of a "hard road ahead" but said much of the blame lay with the previous government.
A National Audit Office report says defence spending in Labour's last year rose by £3.3bn more than planned.
</div> The Spending Review will be announced next week, and the Treasury has been pushing for a reduction of up to 10% on the £37bn MoD budget between 2011 and 2015.
The first defence review for 12 years is being carried out at the same time as the spending review, with deep budget cuts causing more tensions than in any other Whitehall department.
Mr Fox wrote in his editorial for the Times: "Every department must make its own contribution to deficit reduction and the MoD is no exception.
"It will be painful, and sacrifices will be made, but we must get the economy back on track and we must get the defence programme balanced.
"There is a hard road ahead of us, but make no mistake, at the end of the process Britain will have the capabilities it needs for the future, we will continue to be a big contributor to Nato and our interests will be more secure."
“Some projects would actually be more expensive to cancel than to continue - which is an absurdity that you would only really find made in Whitehall”
Liam Fox Defence Secretary "It does [worry me], and the reason it does is because I think we do have to have an alliance where there is a commitment to the common defence," she said.
"Nato has been the most successful alliance for defensive purposes in the history of the world, I guess, but it has to be maintained.
"Each country has to be able to make its appropriate contributions."
In its report, published on Friday, the National Audit Office (NAO) was critical of the way the MoD had been run in the previous year, saying the approved budgets had not been realistic, leading to a £3.3bn "black hole".
The RAF's Typhoon fighter jets, which rose by £2.7bn, and the Royal Navy's two planned new aircraft carriers which went up by £650m, were the main areas of overspending.
The cost of the carriers is understood to have risen to £5.4bn. It was due to the decision in 2008 to slow down the programme so as to spread the spending over a longer period, the NAO said.
The NAO said the increase in the cost of the Typhoons was because of a decision to buy 16 additional aircraft in order to meet the UK's contractual obligations under the four-nation Eurofighter programme with Germany, Italy and Spain.
The cost of building two aircraft carriers rose by £650m The report also said that decisions to progressively reduce the number of planned new Nimrod MR4A reconnaissance aircraft from 21 to nine had led to a tripling of the cost of each individual aircraft.
Mr Fox said the report showed that the MoD has been "living beyond its means for too long".
He said: "Some projects would actually be more expensive to cancel than to continue - which is an absurdity that you would only really find made in Whitehall.
"And some projects we may simply have to accept that we need them and we have to continue to spend on them, but some we may have to decide simply to pull the plug, because we can't continue in the current environment to afford them - despite the amount of money that has been sunk into them so far."
The NAO's Tim Banfield said the result of the "black hole" meant taxpayers "are having to pay more than they should have done for the defence equipments that are being delivered.
"It means for the Armed services that they don't get as much equipment, and they don't get it as quickly as they should do."
This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.