The UK Armed Forces will not be able to defend the country in the event of a serious threat.
Former senior defense official tasked with assessing military power of Britain, said that the British Armed Forces “cannot adequately defend the country” and are not prepared for a conflict of any scale.
The Financial Times writes about this.
According to Rob Johnson, the former director of the assessment and challenge office of the British Ministry of Defence, the British Armed Forces operate with “limited capabilities”, which only allow for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, the evacuation of civilians from combat zones and some anti-sabotage events.
“In any larger operation we would quickly run out of ammunition… Our defenses are too weak and we are not prepared to fight and win an armed conflict of any scale,” Johnson told the FT. < /p>
Johnson said the country's air defenses were “insufficient” to stop long-range missile attacks, the Royal Navy lacked enough ships to patrol the North Atlantic to monitor and deter Russian submarine activity, and the Royal Navy the air force needs almost twice as many fighters as it currently has.
Rob Johnson has said the country's next government should aim to increase defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product “at the very least.”
Equivalent to almost £80 billion a year, this level would put the UK on par with the US, Poland and the Baltics. He added that the spending would modernize the nuclear deterrent and have an army “armed and equipped for 21st century conflicts.”
He said the Royal Air Force must be equipped with 265 combat aircraft, compared with the 137 Typhoons and fewer than three dozen F-35 fighters currently available.
Next in line, Johnson notes, is the Royal Navy, which needs 25 modern warships – up from the two aircraft carriers, six destroyers and 11 frigates it currently has. Meanwhile, the army should be expanded to 125 thousand troops and equipped with “more long-range artillery and long-range weapons,” including drones.
Recall that in Britain, an opposition politician disgraced himself with a statement about the war in Ukraine and Putin.
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