General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff (CGS) and other senior military officials have expressed their concerns over the Ministry of Defence (MoD) warning that the British Army does not have enough funding.
A leaked letter to the Daily Telegraph reveals that General Sir Patrick has warned the British Army ability to undertake campaigns across the world is in doubt.
General Sir Patrick along with senior officials are struggling to “full land” their concerns to the MoD.
The head of the British Army wrote to former generals saying, “For some time, we have asset-sweated the military, compounded by a mismatch between ambition and resource that has been robustly addressed by both National Audit Office and Defence Select Committee reporting.
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Our strategic resilience is at risk, and we might inadvertently reduce ourselves to a smaller, static and domestically-focused land force.
“I am not sure that this is either the Army the nation needs, or the one that policymakers want.”
Major General Julian Thompson, who commanded Three Commando Brigade in the Falklands War, said that General Sir Patrick “is right to warn that we might soon be unable to fulfil our expeditionary or NATO commitments. That is truly shocking.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said, “Our Armed Forces are always ready to protect and defend the nation, with more than £50billion being spent on defence this year alone.
The former head of the British Army Lord Richard Dannatt has agreed with General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff (CGS) that “we will have to get involved” in fighting a war.
Lord Dannatt warned that we only have 75,000 soldiers and this “will not be sustainable.” For example Vladimir Putin has this amount of troops surrounding just one town in Ukraine.
General Lord Dannatt, said General Sir Patrick is correct to raise such a scenario, “if push comes to shove, as a population, we will all have to get involved and harness the manpower of the nation.”
He added, “If international circumstances deteriorate where this country finds itself at war, fighting with an army of 75,000 soldiers will not be sustainable.
“Regular armies fight the opening rounds and the citizen army come in later and put on uniform; we saw it in the First and Second World Wars.
“That’s the reality, and it’s realistic to have these conversations. I certainly don’t criticise the Chief of the General Staff for doing so.”
General Sir Patrick said last month, “Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars, citizen armies win them,” he said.
“We need an army designed to expand rapidly to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon, and train and equip the citizen army that must follow.
“Within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000, folding in our reserve and strategic reserve. But that’s not enough.”
Tobias Ellwood, the former chairman of the defence select committee, said, “We must get into a mindset that the world is moving dangerously in the wrong direction and it is now impacting on our economy, first in the Black Sea, now in the Red Sea.
“The post-Cold War period of instability is over, a new chapter has begun where a new alliance of adversaries are testing the West’s timidity.
“Britain has done well to rekindle its Cold War statecraft, but we can only continue to do that if we upgrade our defence posture.”
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