Lord West: cut foreign aid to defend the Falklands Last week, Argentina threatened to sue oil companies operating around the Falklands amid condemnation of Britain's "illegal" exploitation of South Atlantic resources. The British Government hit back, accusing Argentina of "intimidation" and pledging to "stick up" for the islanders" rights. Lord West, who skippered the HMS Ardent during the 1982 campaign, said the lessons of the war were being forgotten in the Coalition's current Strategic Defence and Security Review. He said: "I am horrified our naval flotilla now comprises only 19 frigates and destroyers. In the Falklands, in the first month of fighting, we had four sunk and 14 damaged. That makes you think. We seem to have forgotten that when you fight you lose things. Here we are with 19 frigates and destroyers. Are they bonkers? Are they mad? How have they allowed this to happen? Lord West, former Labour security minister, said the Navy could not retake the Falklands without major investment, which could be achieved with small cuts in other Whitehall departments. The Government suggested yesterday that its £1.6bn programme of Indian aid was already being wound down. In an interview, Lord West said: "I believe defence should get a better crack of the whip among Government departments. It seems to me a tiny fraction of the aid budget, the welfare budget and of the NHS, so tiny it would hardly affect them, would make an immense difference to defence. Yes there will be howls. We won't be able to give the Indians some aid so they won't be able to build their aircraft carriers. We won't be able to find something in health or in welfare. That always causes howls and squeals but the amounts we are talking about are tiny. The comments came after Rear-Admiral Sir John Forster Woodward, commander of the task force sent to recapture the islands, said cuts had left the Navy as much use as "a Swiss Navy."