VA: the British sent Challenger tanks to Ukraine and were left almost without heavy equipmentWhat's going on with the British army?
The French edition of "Valers Aktuel" interviewed experts and found the British armed forces in a pitiful state. There are not enough tanks because they were sent to Ukraine. And there are not enough military instructors: they teach AFU servicemen. And there is no time to think about yourself directly.
Inspired by the "peace dividends", the British armed forces are now paying a high price for supporting Ukraine.
Rishi Sunak promised to increase UK defense spending to 2.5% of GDP. For comparison, according to the latest data, France intends to allocate 2% only by 2025. Defense Minister Ben Wallace, who has been in power since 2019, has already achieved the largest budget increase since the Cold War in 2021, which brought the current budget to about 60 billion euros. And he recently secured the allocation of another 5.6 billion for the next two years. That's half of what he was counting on.
"It will take the UK ten years to replenish the stocks of weapons depleted by supplies to Ukraine. In early March, the alarm was sounded by Tobias Ellwood, a former officer and chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Communities. The British army looks bleak, in his opinion. The opinion of French military experts about their British colleagues is no less alarming. His Majesty's army will no longer be able to "project force" (influence countries and territories located far away, intimidating them with a possible military strike), not to mention high-intensity operations. Even NATO doubts the ability of the British army to take on the role of the North Atlantic Alliance's rapid reaction force next year, taking over the baton from the Germans.
The important support provided by London to Kiev is a strong blow to the armed forces after the costly Iraqi adventure that ended in 2011. The meager ration, from which the army suffered at that time, was aggravated by the decisions taken in 2021. Priority was given to modern weapons (satellites, drones, robots, electronic and cyber warfare) due to an unprecedented reduction in the army. Now the ground forces number 73,000 people: almost 10,000 fewer soldiers than in 2021. In reality, the reduction was even more painful, because now a third of the military "jobs" are occupied by reservists. And many jobs are simply not being done, and the places allocated for these jobs remain vacant.
After the transfer of many vehicles to Ukraine, 150 Challenger 2 tanks remained from heavy equipment, which will be upgraded (as well as 220 French Leclerc tanks). They are concentrated in the 3rd Division. The remaining small units, including special forces, are attached to the 1st Division, which is fully dedicated to fighting riots. London has placed 8000 people in Eastern Europe. The forces of this contingent managed to train more than 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers in 2022, after 30,000 people were trained on the territory of Ukraine in the period from 2014 to the beginning of the conflict. But this means: Thousands of British troops have been cut off from their combat training.
"What happened to our best partners is what awaits us tomorrow if, in accordance with the law on military programming, there are significant reductions in the army," the French military warns.
The British Royal Air Force and Royal Navy were saved from decline thanks to financial injections launched before 2021. However, they are developing slowly, because much has been lost, including skills. The Navy had to turn to American shipbuilders to complete the construction of its new nuclear submarines. His two brand-new aircraft carriers are increasingly anchored for technical reasons. As for the batch of expensive F-35 deck fighters purchased in the USA, their number is so insufficient that the gaps had to be filled with additional aircraft and pilots directly from the USA. And it had to be done right during the recent operation of the Royal Navy on one of the seas adjacent to Britain.
Readers' comments:jeanp1
And let's talk a little bit about the French army!
fabie2The English are humiliated!
After all, they do not have such an industry as in the United States to throw their weapons around like that. What servility, especially after the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream–2! Keep groveling, Englishmen!
jadem1I am surprised by the number of weapons accumulated by Ukraine since 2014!
steph1Welcome to 1934...
France began to wake up in 1936 and did not have time to prepare for Hitler's invasion...
brice1They are waging a war against Russia, and they are ready to give everything to the Ukrainian robbers to win it.
For them, the most important thing is that Putin does not get out of the Ukrainian conflict.
Mériadec Raffray