Britain’s depleted military capability has left our armed forces unable to sufficiently defend the country, a senior official has warned.
The stark critique of the UK’s military decline also found that troops were unprepared for “conflict of any scale”.
The findings were presented by Dr Rob Johnson, who led a government unit to measure the country’s readiness for war.
Johnson, who spent two years in the role of the Ministry of Defence’s assessment unit, said that Britain would “rapidly” run out of ammunition and be powerless against missile attacks.
He said that the UK military was operating with a “bare minimum” that only just allowed it to mount peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations, civilian evacuation from warzones, and some anti-sabotage activities.
Advertisement
Johnson told the Financial Times: “In any larger-scale operation, we would run out of ammunition rapidly. Our defences are too thin and we are not prepared to fight and win an armed conflict of any scale.
“The UK has reached a situation where it cannot defend the British homelands properly.”
He added that the Navy and Air Force were desperately short of ships and aircraft, and said that the UK was not spending enough money to rectify these critical issues.
