British army so depleted it could only ‘seize a small market town on a good day’
The British army is so exhausted it could only “capture a small market town on a good day”, a former senior military commander has warned, as concerns grow about the UK’s ability to defend itself.
General Sir Richard Barrons, one of the authors of a major defense review published by the government last year, issued a scathing assessment of the military, warning that none of the services could do “anything significant”.
“The Armed Forces that we have now, because of their size and also their complexity, can only make a very small contribution on land, in the air and at sea to an organization led by the US or, more likely, a NATO initiative. What it cannot do is something significant,” 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,” added Sir Richard.
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.
It comes after Israel issued a stern warning on Saturday that Iranian missiles are a threat to European cities including London, Paris and Berlin, after Iran unsuccessfully launched two ballistic missiles at the 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 chairs of parliament’s select committees; here he faced allegations that England was 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 mounting since Iran launched drone strikes on Cyprus, with one hitting RAF Akrotiri base in the UK at the start of the conflict.
When the destroyer HMS Dragon was deployed, she had just reached the Mediterranean and needed six days of urgent preparations before she could set sail. There were no other ships in the area.
The issue became embarrassing for the UK after the Greek and French governments deployed naval forces to defend Cyprus before the UK did.
