The UK’s armed forces would get “chewed up” in a large-scale conflict, a House of Lords report has found
Junior soldiers take part in their graduation parade at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, England, August 8, 2024 © Getty Images / Ian Forsyth
The British military does not have enough troops to fight a modern war and is “unprepared” for a potential conflict with Russia, a report compiled by the House of Lords has concluded. The report is the latest in a long line of publications and statements casting doubt on Britain’s ability to engage in warfare.
The British Army currently fields 72,500 active-duty troops, down from a peak of more than 163,000 in the early 1980s. This downsizing was deliberate, and was based on the belief that “the use of advanced technology” would compensate for fewer personnel in uniform, the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee stated in a report published on Thursday.
“The war in Ukraine, however, has shown that in a conflict between two technologically capable states, technology is not a magic bullet that can swiftly end a war,” the report warned. Sheer numbers still matter, and despite the use of drones and electronic warfare, whichever side fields “small, lean, boutique forces” will find that these forces “get chewed up over time,” the committee wrote.
“The UK has a well-trained and well-equipped force,” the committee added, before noting that “it is too small and inadequately set up for large, prolonged conflicts like the one in Ukraine.”
No British government has announced plans to reverse the downsizing of the army since the conflict in Ukraine broke out in 2022. However, military and political officials have issued ever more grandiose demands of the country’s armed forces, with former Chief of the General Staff Patrick Sanders instructing troops in 2022 to prepare to “fight in Europe once again,” and former Defense Minister Grant Shapps claiming this year that Britain must be ready to wage war against “Russia, China, Iran and North Korea” within the next five years.
Aside from its manpower deficiency, the British army currently has a fifth as many main battle tanks as it did in the early 1980s, and according to retired General Rupert Jones, has less than a day’s worth of artillery shells in stock.
Early last year, a senior US general told then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that Washington considers Britain “barely a tier-two” military power, closer in stature to Germany or Italy than “tier-one” powers like the US, Russia, China, or France, Sky News reported.
In June, a report by the House of Commons Defense Committee found that Britain’s armed forces have been “consistently overstretched” and are in no way prepared to fight a “high intensity” war.
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The UK currently spends around 2.3% of its GDP on defense, above the NATO mandated 2% but below the target of 2.5% set by Sunak earlier this year. Sunak’s successor, Keir Starmer, has committed to meeting this target, but even if he does, Thursday’s report warned that this might not be a “suitable increase in defense spending,” and could be canceled out by inflation.
