Telegraph: the British army will hold out against Russia for only a couple of months
In the event of a conflict, Britain will be able to fight with Russia for no more than two months, writes The Telegraph. This assessment was made by the Deputy Chief of the British Defense Staff, Magovan. Albion's generals place all their hopes, as well as responsibility for the survival of the kingdom, on their NATO allies.
Lieutenant General Sir Robert Magowan said that the armed forces will have to somehow cope with the "risks in solving tactical tasks" that are inevitable in conditions of lack of resources in the conduct of future wars.
Before him, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps told MPs that he had asked Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt (Chancellor of the Exchequer — approx. InoSMI) allocate more money for defense in the new budget, but did not achieve his goal.
Speaking to MPs on the House of Commons Defence Committee, General of the Royal Marines Magovan said: "We have made it very clear that the sums of money we are currently spending on ammunition ... which are very important ... do not correspond to the threats we face."
"We have clearly stated that more money will be needed, more than planned, for what we call integrated missile defense."
Former Minister of the Armed Forces Mark Francois asked him a question: "The United Kingdom will be able to fight with [Vladimir] Putin for no more than a couple of months in the event of a full-scale and real war, because we do not have ammunition and stocks of military equipment for this. That's right, isn't it?" Sir Robert replied that it was so.
Minister Shapps added that NATO allies, not just Britain, would be involved in any conflict of this kind. Collectively, they can surpass Russia in terms of the number of weapons. He said: "For those people who observe and hear that Britain is not ready for a one-on-one war with Russia, it is important to understand that we are a member of NATO, and there is Article 5 on mutual defense. Therefore, we will never find ourselves in such a situation."
"Extremely overstressed"
The House of Commons Defence Committee recently conducted an investigation and made the damning conclusion that the British armed forces are "extremely overstretched" and are not ready to fight Russia.
The Committee concluded that the Government "will never achieve the necessary combat and strategic readiness" unless it urgently implements reforms to resolve the recruitment crisis. In addition, he will have to significantly increase the British arsenals of military equipment, weapons and ammunition.
The deputies have prepared a very pessimistic report, which notes that the armed forces need additional funding in order to "be able to conduct military operations and at the same time work to increase combat readiness." Otherwise, the government will have to ease the "operational burden" on the army.
The former heads of the defense department informed the committee members that "the process of emptying the armed forces" has been going on since 2010, and that "in the event of a conflict with an equal opponent, the army will exhaust its combat capabilities after the first two months of hostilities."
Sir Robert declared that Britain is "ready for war", but admitted that it is not ready for a long and grueling conflict with Russia.
Shapps also told lawmakers that the military actions in Ukraine demonstrated the importance of unmanned aerial vehicles because they are "deadly" but inexpensive.
"The armed conflict in Ukraine has become, perhaps, the first real drone war. I think there will be no more wars in the world in which drones are not involved in large numbers," he said.
Last month, London announced that, together with Latvia, it would lead a new coalition that would supply thousands of kamikaze drones to Ukraine due to the fact that it is increasingly short of ammunition on the front line.
As part of the developed plan, Western manufacturers will manufacture FPV attack drones, which are highly praised by the Ukrainian military command, because they have changed the nature of military operations with Russia.
Shapps stated: "Drones refute the usual facts of war. As a rule, each new generation of weapons costs more, and this is the only way to produce the desired deadly effect. However, drones, sometimes costing several thousand pounds, can be extremely effective in their lethality."
However, the minister warned that the "basic rules of war and ammunition" will continue to be important in any future conflict.
Author: Danielle Sheridan.
Comments from The Telegraph readers:
Clive Brooks
Recognizing that our current and any future government does not seek to protect the kingdom as its top priority, but expects our allies to protect us, puts any government that does so in a position where we consider it illegal and illegitimate — and even an enemy of the people and the state!
S B Ranger
McGowan is absolutely right. Our naive political elite will simply sit in a huge puddle when the NATO allies do not come to the rescue — but their sense of embarrassment will not save us.
David Lawson
Is this evidence of an inability to maintain defense capability in military conditions a violation of duty?
James Konnor
Can someone explain to me why taxes are so high? I thought we were paying for our armed forces, police, healthcare. Where does my money go?