In the case of a war between the United Kingdom and a similarly-sized opponent, the British Armed Forces would exhaust their capabilities “after the first couple of months of the engagement,” said General Sir Nick Carter, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, a House of Commons defence committee report revealed.
General Lord Houghton told the committee that there has been a “hollowing out” of the Armed Forces since 2010, which has resulted in shortfalls in the country’s warfighting resilience.
The Ministry of Defence admitted that gaps in their warfighting readiness include insufficient infrastructure and warehousing for munitions, infrastructure at key ports and airbases, operational medical capacity, and armoured vehicle equipment support.
The Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, claimed that while the cuts to the military were necessary at the time they were enacted, but acknowledged that “there is a whole load of stuff that we disinvested in that we urgently need to reinvest in” and that the Minstry of Defence has “an awful lot of work to do to recover the… readiness that we enjoyed during the cold war, and that we require again now.”
In addition to suffering under lack of investment, the readiness of the military has also been diminished by aid to Ukraine. According to The Telegraph, the 155th Artillery Regiment is literally out of guns after they were shipped to Kyiv for the war effort against Russia. READ MORE
