ANALYSIS – Great Britain has long been one of the world’s premier military powers, even after divesting itself of its global empire after World War II and shrinking its forces and global footprint.
While its armed forces are small relative to the major superpowers, the U.K. has always punched well above its weight, keeping itself among the world’s elite forces.
Among its strengths were its centuries of global military warfighting experience, well-equipped and highly trained officers and troops, not to mention its small but lethal nuclear capability.
Sadly, according to one U.S. general, and other defense sources, the U.K. has now lost that military edge.
And other sources argue that the new prime minister doesn’t care.
Sky News reports that a senior U.S. general has privately told U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace the British Army is no longer regarded as a top-level fighting force.
Due to neglect and decades of budget cuts by both Labor and Conservative governments, “it’s an entire service unable to protect the U.K. and our allies for a decade.”
In 2020, then prime minister Boris Johnson increased defense spending by £16bn (US$19.7 billion) – the biggest jump since the Cold War.
But this was still not enough to rebuild the shrunken force.
According to Sky News, the U.S. general is said to have told Wallace that the U.K. military is no longer a “tier one” fighting force on par with the United States, Russia, China or even France and is “barely” in tier two.
Tier two includes European powers with less fighting capability, such as Germany or Italy.
This a serious warning and call to arms as both the U.S. and NATO rely on the U.K. and British forces for myriad missions and to augment deterrence.
With the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and a mushrooming Chinese military threat, this dangerously weakened British military poses more of a risk now than ever before.
And while the picture is bleak across the British military, the army is particularly wounded, even as it bleeds critical warfighting equipment to Ukraine.
According to Sky News: “The chronic erosion has created what defence sources describe as a ‘hollow force’, with insufficient personnel, not enough money to train and arm those still on the books, out-dated weapons and depleted stockpiles of ammunition and spare parts.”
This is something acutely similar to the U.S. Army’s predicament at the end of the Vietnam war.
Sadly, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak isn’t providing much hope.
Sky News continues:
The sources said Rishi Sunak risked failing in his role as “wartime prime minister” unless he took urgent action given the growing security threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
This should include increasing the defence budget by at least £3bn a year; halting a plan to shrink the size of the army even further; and easing peacetime procurement rules that obstruct the UK’s ability to buy weapons and ammunition at speed.
“We have a wartime prime minister and a wartime chancellor,” one source said.
“History will look back at the choices they make in the coming weeks as fundamental to whether this government genuinely believes that its primary duty is the defence of the realm or whether that is just a slogan to be given lip service.”
“The PM’s wartime approach is currently to cut the army, hollow it out further by gifting [equipment to Ukraine] and with no plans to replace [the weapons] for five to seven years,” the first defense source told Sky News.
On a positive note, like the U.S. military after Vietnam, with the proper resources and leadership, the British military can be rebuilt into a robust and capable ‘tier one’ force again.
But the investment and political will must start now.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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With Dem’s in charge in our own country, are we far behind?
Blood is thicker than water and curry is thicker than fish and chips. This guy will be to Britain as Balack Obama was to the US.
Kudos to both Paul and Jawad for these responses.
The headline could easily -and accurately- read: “The U.S. now has a 2nd rate military, says U.K. (or any) general – U.S. President doesn’t care.” After the U.S.’ defeat by the ragtag militia known as the Taliban, no U.S. military leader is in a position to criticize any nation’s military, sad to say. I do not doubt the truth of the writer’s statements about the U.K. military, but the same has unfortunately become true of our own. “Great civilizations don’t die, they commit suicide.” – Arnold Toynbee, British historian.