A military expert has warned the UK is ill prepared to fight Russia (Image: Getty)
A former British Lieutenant-Colonel has issued a chilling warning that the UK has never been militarily weaker and more vulnerable to an attack by Russia. He warned that if the UK was drawn into an armed conflict with Putin’s army then its military was ill-equipped and ill-prepared to face the challenge and in all likelihood would be defeated.
His words come after reports emerged on Tuesday that the British government still does not have a national plan for the defence of the UK or mobilisation of its people and industry in a war despite renewed threats of conflict.
Glen Grant served 37 years in the British armed forces and has worked as an adviser to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.
‘We’ve never been so weak’
Glen Grant served 37 years in the British armed forces (Image: Glen Grant)
He told Express.co.uk: “I think Russia thinks we’re a bunch of namby-pambies and probably just waiting until they can actually stuff Ukraine, so to speak, before they move on to someone else.
“Britain is particularly vulnerable because we’re an island and we rely on all the things like our cables running everywhere.
“And we’re actually quite weak in terms of being able to guard what we’ve got, including Scotland, and able to reinforce and help others.
“I mean, we’ve never been so weak militarily. Maybe between the (World) wars we were, but we’re clearly in a bad place at the moment.”
The former senior army officer was particularly scathing about the apparent lack of any coordinated national defence plan for the UK and criticised politicians for being complacent about national security.
“And as for a (national defence) plan, well of course there must be one, and if there isn’t, someone should be in prison,” he said.
‘Not taking war in Ukraine seriously’
A British Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft flies at RAF Coningsby (Image: Getty)
Mr Grant added that politicians in the UK are failing to see the seriousness of the war in Ukraine.
He added: “Because if it hasn’t been obvious since 2014 that we were in trouble, in fact since Georgia in 2008 – if people haven’t been taking this seriously… and as far as I can see the politicians are still not taking it seriously.”
Mr Grant urged the UK government to rapidly expand its military reserves and to beef up its defence industry – in particular new investments need to be made in drones and air defence systems to protect the UK from ballistic missile attacks.
“If Russia picks up more ballistic missiles from North Korea then we’re in trouble because we do not have any capacity to take those down at all,” he noted.
The UK armed forces currently has 142,560 active personnel – 77,540 of whom serve in the British Army.
The Government spent £25bn on the military in 2022/23 (Image: Getty)
The government also spent more than £25 billion in 2022/23, up £1.8billion from the previous year.
The Ministry of Defence says that an average of £370 is being spent with the UK defence industry for each person living in the UK, and that the sector employs just over 200,000 people.
Mr Grant said there needed to be a significant mind change among Britain’s top brass about how to fight a future potential conflict with the Russians.
He claimed that too many people in the British army were still influenced by their experiences of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.
“We’re talking about people who are untrained in this (Ukraine) war,” he explained.
“They don’t know how this war fights. They don’t know how to do this because they’re sitting back in UK or they’re sitting somewhere else.
“And they’re still thinking of Afghanistan or Iraq, Iraq, but this is not an Afghanistan or Iraq war, nor is it a First World War or Second World War anymore. We’ve gone past that.”
He added: “We’ve dropped down on everything to just having the core of highly technical super guys that we can put in a helicopter and fly.
“We’ve almost gone like towards the special forces thinking, but actually the war has gone the other way. It’s gone towards mass, deep and dirty.”
Government War Book
In a report released by Sky News on Tuesday, it was revealed that a two-day ‘war game’ is due to take place next week. This would involve officials from the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Office, Home Office and other departments, to talk through how the country would respond to an armed attack.
On top of this, a paper is circulating in Whitehall looking at lessons to be learnt from an old system of plans, known as the Government War Book. Currently sitting in the National Archives, it once explained how Britain would move from peace to war.
