British Army is “not ready to fight” a war despite international tensions ramping up.
The Defence Secretary, John Healey, said that the UK was “very skilled and ready to conduct military operations” but needed to be “ready to fight”.
He went on to claim that, after Labour took over the government in July, ministers found the state of the armed forces was “far worse than we thought”.
Mr Healey said: “The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations.
“What we’ve not been ready to do is to fight. And unless we are ready to fight, we are not in a shape to deter.” He added that this was “at the heart” of thinking within NATO.
The Defence Secretary said: “We’ve got to not just be capable of defending our Nato nations, but more importantly, got to be more effective in the deterrence that we can provide against any future aggression.
“Our forces need to be able to innovate. We need to be able to take the new technologies and some of the lessons from Ukraine and make what we do more lethal and therefore a stronger deterrence.”
This comes as a former head of the army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, warned earlier this year that with the number of troops at its lowest level in centuries, civilians might need to be called up in the event of a war.
During an event, the general said “national mobilisation” isn’t a reality only for countries close to Russia. He added: “We will not be immune and as the prewar generation we must similarly prepare – and that is a whole-of-nation undertaking. Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them.”
And the current army chief, General Sir Roly Walker, said that the size of the country’s fighting force needed to triple and must be ready to fight a war in three years.
Defence analyst Colonel Simon Diggins agreed, telling LBC that “in the event of a significant threat to us, we would struggle to defend ourselves”.
A Government spokesperson said: “This government will always do what’s required to defend the country. The UK’s armed forces are amongst the best in the world and offer a 24/7 defence of the UK – operating alongside our Allies and partners to prepare for any event.
“The Strategic Defence Review will look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need so that our armed forces are better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative.”
