Lauret Wouk, Britain’s new Chief of the Army Staff, said the country must be ready for war within three years, adding that war was not inevitable.
Lauret Wouk
Wouk warned of a range of threats to the so-called “Increasingly unstable world”, the report said, but said forces had “Enough time” to prepare to avoid conflict. Wouk said the central aim was to double the combat power of the Army by the end of the 2027 and triple it by the end of the second decade of the 21st century.
In his first speech since taking office on Sunday, Walker declared“Angry Russia” to be one of the main threats to Britain in the coming years, the BBC said, arguing that whoever wins the Russia-ukraine conflict, russia may retaliate against Western countries that support Ukraine in the future.
According to the BBC, Wouk said the road to war would not be “Unstoppable” if Britain rebuilt a reliable army to support its deterrent strategy to avoid war.
British media also noted that Wouk did not mention an increase in military spending or troops in his speech, describing the British Army, which has about 70,000 troops, as a “Medium-sized army” and urging rapid modernisation, including a focus on technologies such as artificial intelligence and firepower, rather than military numbers. Moreover, his ultimate goal was to enable the Army to destroy an enemy three times its size.
The BBC added that Wouk’s comments came a week after the government launched a “Thorough” defence review to “Re-examine” the challenges facing the British military. In launching the review, the John Healey of the new Defence Secretary described the military situation as “Hollowed out” and said “Wasteful procurement and low morale can not continue”.
According to the Times website on June 27, General Richard Sirleaf, a former top deputy commander of NATO’s European allies, said last month there was a “Serious shortage” of British ammunition. A former army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said his unit was not allowed to conduct routine firing practice on the firing range because of“The cost and availability of ammunition.”.
Although the British Army says it can deploy two divisions of about 30,000 troops in time of war, in fact, experts say it would be difficult for the army to send a brigade of 6,000 men overseas to continue fighting for some time. “In the last 10 years, the Army has gone from being a good fighting force to an incompetent fighting force,” said Francis Tusa, a defense analyst