The former Minister of State for the Armed Forces has warned that if war breaks out the British Army “would run out of ammunition in just 10 days.”
John Spellar gave the sobering warning in the House of Commons to the current Armed Forces minister James Heappey.
He said, “The minister rightly speaks about the ability to sustain fighting, he knows that an exercise conducted with the Americans showed that the British Army would run out of munitions within 10 days.”
Heappey responded, “In exercises that I have seen where the UK have operated alongside the US, what happens again and again and again is that American senior commanders hold the UK force elements in the highest of regard.”
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Former army officer and Tory MP Richard Drax raised concerns, saying, “I would challenge the fact that we are ready to fight a sustained war with the armed forces that we have, and bearing in mind all the threats that we face that’s become very real.
Would the defence minister now stand at the despatch box and say we need to spend a lot more money on defence?
Heappey replied, “The reality is that our armed forces remain fearsome. Yes, it is the job of this House, and particularly Mr Drax’s committee, to scrutinise, as they have, our readiness.”
He added, “Our armed forces do need reinvestment in their ability to sustain themselves at a war-fighting level, that’s no scandal, that is the consequence of a peace dividend that allowed successive governments to rightly disinvest in the resilience that kept our Cold War force credible.
“But, as the Secretary of State so rightly said in his speech the other week, we’re now in a pre-war era and so it’s the responsibility of this Government and those who follow to reinvest in that necessary war-fighting capability.”
General Sir Richard Shirreff, Britain’s ex-Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe slammed the government over their policies on defence.
He said, “Britain, I believe, has shown extraordinary complacency.
“I think it has sat back on its laurels and this government has said, ‘We were the first to support Ukraine’, which is true and credit is credit where credit is due.
“But it hasn’t recognised yet, the real risks involved and the fact that if Ukraine is to achieve a decisive result – a victory over Russia – and that is by no means a given; in fact, Ukraine right now is on the backfoot, the West has got to dig deep.
“It has got to mobilise its economies. It has got to put itself effectively on a war economy footing not just to produce the military capability, but frankly, to grow the GDP in order to be able to afford to do it.”
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