London: A group of former Royal Navy chiefs urged the government Wednesday to reverse its decision to scrap the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the fleet of Harrier jets, which they described as "the most dangerous of the defence cuts" announced by the coalition.

In a letter to the Times, the former commanders said the cuts would leave the oil-rich Falkland Islands open to a fresh Argentinian attack "from which British prestige ... might never recover".

The signatories, who include former navy chief Lord West and Sir Julian Oswald, the admiral of the fleet, also said they believed David Cameron had been badly advised before agreeing to the measures, which they said "practically invited" Argentina to attempt to inflict a national humiliation on the British on the scale of the loss of Singapore in 1942.

But a spokesman for the Falklands government said it was not concerned that defence cuts would leave the islands vulnerable to attack. "The Falkland Islands government is satisfied and grateful for the levels of defence on the islands which are suitable to maintain an effective deterrent," a spokesman said.

West, who served as a counter-terrorism minister in the previous Labour government, told the Times he was not convinced that the prime minister had been given a "full and proper briefing about the implications" of the defence cuts.

Maintenance

Describing the Harrier decision as "strategically and financially perverse", the group claimed that keeping Tornado jets would cost seven times as much in maintenance during the next decade.

"Was the recent exercise not supposed to save money?" they wrote.

West told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Falklands were an example to illustrate the lack of capability: "It applies all around the world," he said. "The only way to get fixed-wing air covering our troops is to have them on aircraft carriers. The Tornado can't get to any of these places."

On the Falklands, West said: "What we mustn't forget is that the Argentines still see sovereignty as a major issue. If the islands were captured we have absolutely no way whatsoever of recovering them unless we have carrier air."

Nick Harvey, the junior defence minister, hit back at the claims, claiming the difficult decision had been based on the "balance" of advice given by those now at the helm.

Harvey told Today: "The actual battle we are involved in here and now is the battle in Afghanistan. This was a very difficult decision. It was looked at in immense detail. In the end a decision had to be made and we took the decision on the basis of the balance of military advice coming from the current military leadership."

The other signatories to the letter were Vice-Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, Vice-Admiral John McAnally and Major-General Julian Thompson.

The strategic defence and security review outlined plans to ditch the fleet of 80 Harrier jump jets, which can take off and land from carriers, decommission the Ark Royal and scrap a number of other ships. Other measures included cutting troop numbers by around 7,000.