British Army ‘too small to help fight Russia’

European generals and diplomats have raised concerns about whether Britain’s shrinking army is big enough to face a ‘high-intensity’ conflict.

A camouflaged British soldier in Poland for NATO exercises. Picture: AFP

European generals and diplomats have raised concerns about whether Britain’s shrinking army is big enough to face a “high-intensity” conflict.

The government has said it would reduce the army from 82,000 to 73,000 by 2025, its smallest since the Napoleonic era. It has nearly met that target, reaching a force of 73,190 as more soldiers leave than are being recruited.

American generals have questioned Britain’s status as a top-level fighting force and have warned that the UK can no longer rely on the US to plug gaps in its capabilities. Several senior European figures have now expressed fears that the British Army would not be big enough to help to fight Russia should a conflict break out.

The French army has more than 110,000 troops and Germany is planning to boost the number of troops in its armed forces to 203,000. Britain’s armed forces total about 150,000.

Germany is planning to send a brigade-sized force of more than 4000 troops to Lithuania from 2027 as part of NATO’s enhanced forward presence, but Britain will have most of its troops on standby to go to Estonia, rather than be present on the frontlines.

One European general, who asked not to be named, said: “There is a concern about the British Army. We see they are facing difficulties regarding their human resources and equipment capabilities. The number of soldiers will be reducing in the coming months. The main problem is the army’s capability to face a high-intensity conflict. You must have mass, you must have numbers. In Ukraine you can see we must have mass to fight the Russian army.”

British defence spending has fallen from 2.47 per cent of GDP in 2010 to 2.28 per cent last year, although Rishi Sunak said the UK would spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030.

Labour has committed itself to a 2.5 per cent target when economic conditions allow. The US spent 3.4 per cent of GDP on defence last year, more than any other country.

A second European general said that despite pledges to boost defence spending “the British Army is still in decline”, adding: “None of the recent announcements have moved the dial on that.”

They also pointed out that the UK had a pivotal role to play in European defence because of its nuclear deterrence.

The British Ministry of Defence said: “Already this year we’ve deployed over 16,000 troops and thousands of vehicles to continental Europe as part of [the NATO exercise] Steadfast Defender.”

The Times