British army so depleted it could only ‘seize a small market town on a good day’

british army so exhausted that it could only “capture a small market town on a good day” former senior military commander He made the warning at a time when concerns are growing about Britain’s ability to defend itself.

make a damn assessment militaryGeneral Sir Richard Barrons, one of the authors of a major defense review published by the government last year, warned that neither service could do “anything significant”.

“Onearmed forces Because of their size and also their complexity, we can currently make a very small contribution on land, in the air and at sea to a US-led organization or, more likely, another organization. NATO commitment. It doesn’t matter what he can’t do,” he told the BBC.

Britain has promised the NATO alliance a strategic reserve force of 30,000 to 50,000 troops, ready to be deployed anywhere in the alliance, the former senior military commander revealed.

But he claimed that “the military does not yet have the equipment, training or support to come close to providing this.”

“Today’s army can frankly do very little; in fact, on a good day, it can capture a small market town,” Sir Richard added.

Jack Watling, senior research fellow in land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agrees with this grim assessment.

“Ukrainians trying to defend Bakhmut lost 10,000 people killed and wounded during the defense of the small market town of Bakhmut, which is almost the entire infantry force of the British army,” he warned.

The researcher also warned that Britain’s artillery shortage was critical after it handed over a large amount of weapons to Ukraine.

The statement came after Israel issued a stern warning on Saturday that Iranian missiles pose a threat to European cities including London, Paris and Berlin, following the unsuccessful firing of two ballistic missiles by Iran. UK-US Diego Garcia military base In the Chagos Islands.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer faces accusations of “indifference” amid concerns over Britain’s lack of preparedness for war in the Middle East.

The Prime Minister clashed with both Labor and Conservative MPs on Monday when he appeared before the House of Commons liaison committee, made up of chairmen of parliamentary select committees; already at war.

The outlook came before the prime minister chaired an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday afternoon to prepare for the war’s impact on the cost of living, and he admitted to MPs that he had been unable to give a timetable for an end to the conflict despite Donald Trump’s declaration of a ceasefire.

Sir Keir was also challenged by the lack of Royal Navy ships in the Mediterranean, amid questions about why the UK was so unprepared to defend its key bases in Cyprus when President Trump launched a war on Iran.

In a rather testy speech, senior Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin suggested the government “lacks the war-fighting mentality” and claimed that defense decision-making has “an enormous whiff of complacency”.

He argued that the UK was “at war” and asked why “the government is not content with that”.

Sir Keir replied: “Because the strategic review commits us to a war footing and we now need to introduce funding to increase defense spending to 2.5 per cent, something that did not happen under the last government and was not presented with a credible proposal by your party at the election.”

Questions have been rising since Iran launched drone strikes on Cyprus, with one of them hitting an RAF base in the UK Akrotiri at the beginning of the conflict.

While the destroyer was HMS Dragon deployed, had just reached the Mediterranean and needed six days of hasty preparations before sailing. There were no other ships in the area.

The issue became embarrassing for Britain after the Greek and French governments were able to deploy naval forces to defend Cyprus before the UK could.