The UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee has warned of impending defence cuts and is “deeply concerned” that continued operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are eroding the UK armed forces’ ability to react to any new contingent operations. In a report released on 28 January the committee suggested that despite a planned real-term increase in the defence budget of 1.5 per cent annually (GBP7.7 billion [USD15 billion] in total) until 2011, “cuts in the defence programme, including the equipment programme, are likely in the coming months as part of the Planning Round process”. It called on the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to be “realistic” about the number of equipment programmes that can be funded.