The head of the armed forces summoned his army chief over a speech in which he said a “citizen army” should be trained and equipped to fight future wars, The Times can reveal.
General Sir Patrick Sanders was called into Admiral Sir Tony Radakin’s office for a dressing down over remarks last month that infuriated No 10. A defence source said they understood Radakin did not believe it was “helpful to have that discussion publicly” and made that clear in the meeting.
In a speech at Chatham House on Tuesday, Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, took the highly unusual decision of publicly admonishing Sanders, saying “there aren’t any plans” for the scenarios he envisaged. He appeared to go as far as to suggest Sanders’ comments were “alarmist”.
He said: “I worry the public debate that has played out over recent weeks risks becoming confused and some remarks are alarmist … Britain is secure.” He said it was not the job of the military chiefs to comment on the size of the military or the defence budget and that such conversations should be “private”.
He said that his obligation as chief of the defence staff and “the obligation of all the chiefs, is to focus on delivering the most from the armed forces today”.
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“We can always do better and we advise ministers on what more might need to be done in the future. But it is for politicians to decide how much resource is allocated and where and how this is balanced with wider demands of government. Those are sensitive conversations. They are best done in private,” he said. He dismissed any suggestion there would be a return to conscription and said: “We are not on the cusp of war with Russia. We are not about to be invaded.”
He also said the case for a bigger army should not be made if the service cannot hit its current recruitment targets, in what appeared to be another thinly veiled swipe at Sanders. “So before we start talking about a bigger army, can we first concentrate on meeting our current recruitment targets?” he said.
Asked about previous remarks by Sanders about preparing for a future war, Radakin said he was “cautious” about the way his language had been interpreted and there were no plans for a specific programme to prepare for a future war.
When asked about Radakin’s speech, a defence source pointed to a letter leaked over the weekend in which Sanders warned that the army was at risk of becoming a static, domestically focused land force.
He told retired generals: “For some time, we have asset-sweated the military. Our strategic resilience is at risk and we might inadvertently reduce ourselves to a smaller, static and domestically focused land force. I am not sure that this is either [what] the army [or] the nation needs, or the one that policymakers want.”
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Last month Sanders, who is stepping down from his post in the coming weeks, said the country should “train and equip” a citizen army for a future land conflict, echoing concerns raised in other countries. Within three years he said Britain should have a larger army of 120,000, including regular soldiers, reserves and a “strategic reserve” of former service personnel who could be recalled in the event of an emergency, he said.
His speech came after the German defence minister said Vladimir Putin could launch an attack on Nato in the next five to eight years. Admiral Rob Bauer, a senior Nato military commander, also said private citizens needed to be ready for a possible conflict within 20 years. “We have to realise it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why [Nato forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia,” said Bauer, a Dutch naval officer who chairs the Nato military committee.
One source dismissed Sanders’ remarks as “blue-sky” thinking and Downing Street was believed to be infuriated they had not been consulted first. It is understood they swiftly approved Radakin’s speech to Chatham House.
