This may include adverts from us and 3 rd parties based on our understanding. One ex-general told them that they would leave Britain sticking up its bottom and inviting anyone who wishes us harm to park their bicycle inside it Under last March s Defence Command Paper the 80,000 - strong Army will shrink 11 percent to 72,500 troops by 2025 with tanks, and artillery scrapped and land sold as it attempts to meet the challenges of future warfare.
With the royal navy, where it recently handed the new Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Richard Barrons, has been at the heart of the government s global ambitions largely maritime, the Army - once dominant in Afghanistan and Iraq - has now become the runt of the litter said Gen Tony Radakin. The writing is already on the wall in terms of equipment.
The scrapping of 227 Challenger 2 tanks will leave just 148 more capable Challenger 3 tanks; hundreds of AS 90 artillery guns will go with no replacement; 600 Warriors - vital for allowing infantry to operate with tanks, are due to go by 2025; 200 Scimitars will still be used; a contract for 400 US made Joint Light Tactical Vehicles JVLT has been cancelled and Ajax - a deep reconnaissance and strike vehicle heralded as the cornerstone of the British
Plans to reduce the army s size to around 65,000 had already been rejected after publishing of the Defence Command Paper, but floated because of a 16.5 bn cash boost.
However, the money, spread over three years is said to be the amount needed to fill the Ministry of Defence s back hole funding, this also means that new proposals have already been discussed by senior brass at a meeting held by Chief of General Staff Gen Sir Rishi Sunak next month, following what is anticipated to be a harsh hand by Chancellor Mark Carleton-Smith in the budget on October 27. The plans - which were not denied by the Ministry of Defence - caused one senior source last night to note what was already a capability massacre is now a bloodbath In his last night remarks Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who led Joint Force Command until 2016 said: We know the army needs much more heavily in air and missile defence, long range precision firepower, protected mobility suitable for urban areas and can operate in a way that can disperse, because large armoured formations are just targets now. We saw in Ukraine that Russia can destroy Ukraine in 20 minutes. Hiding in woods just won t cut it. The problem is that we don t have anything to replace these things with yet. It means the British Army will face a ten year strategic gap, whereby what you are left with is a gendarmerie which won't cut it against UK capability, that is no good against Russia and won't make a meaningful contribution to NATO.
This equipment exists and if we can not buy it we must make it. We simply cannot afford to wait ten years while we work this out, or we will find ourselves lying in the ground and sticking our bottom in the air and inviting anyone who wishes to do us harm to park their bike in it. The backbone of the Henry Jackson Society - thank tank has been to provide a conventional deterrent by armoured battle fighting division, which is now obsolete.
Then we have two tank regiments, which is laughable, a replacement for an infantry fighting vehicle which is nowhere in sight and our reconnaissance vehicle, Ajax, is inundated with delays. He said that while the army was focused on capabilities such as 'information manoeuvres', 'integrated operations' and 'information domains', you can not deny territory and kill the enemy with a laptop or from space, nor can you protect global interests in Europe, Indian Oceanic and Pacific without a capable and credible infantry.
From now on, the British army will no longer be able to field an armoured brigade, either with allies or isolation.
What we have left is a force that can do the national resilience - if too many regional bases aren t axed - training missions abroad, fight in greyzones with the new Rangers Regiment and that's it.