It’s reported that, ‘The British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force are all struggling with “hollowed out forces, procurement waste, [and] low morale,” British Defence Secretary John Healey has warned.
In a grim assessment of the state of the UK military, Healey told the British Army’s annual Land Warfare Conference that the nation’s armed forces face “very serious challenges,” according to Sky News.
“We now also see that these problems are much worse than we thought,” added the defence secretary, who has been in office for just over two weeks as part of the new Labour government.
Healey also said he wants to establish “a new era for UK defence” in the face of “rapidly increasing global threats.”
The new British government launched a thorough defence review earlier this month after Labour’s general election victory. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted that Britain should be better prepared for “a more dangerous and volatile [capitalist] world.”
The government has set out a “roadmap” to spending 2.5% of national income on defence. Britain is a member of NATO, which requires that member states spend at least 2% of GDP on their militaries.
The conference in London was also attended by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, General Valery Zaluzhny, who delivered a speech claiming that a Third World War may be approaching as a result of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. [Giss us more money!] Zaluzhny was removed from his post as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces by Vladimir Zelensky in February following the failed 2023 counteroffensive.
London has been a vocal supporter of Kiev since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The British government has delivered almost £12.5 billion ($16.1 billion) in aid to Kiev as of the beginning of July 2024.
Earlier this month, Starmer pledged to provide £3 billion ($3.87 billion) a year in military support to Ukraine until 2030/31 and “for as long as needed.”
Zelensky visited London last week to meet with Starmer and attend a cabinet meeting. The British leader told Zelensky that London would speed up the delivery of aid to Kiev, claiming that “Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda.”London and Kiev also signed a framework agreement which included a £2 billion ($2.6 billion) loan to finance Ukraine’s defence needs.
[ (Harold) ‘Wilson’s private stance against going to war in Vietnam may have more practical than principled, with Wilson believing that joining the war wasn’t something the Labour Party should be doing, and that Britain simply couldn’t afford it. Despite committing no troops, Wilson still faced huge public criticism for not outright condemning the conflict – the mood was angry and rebellious, with police only just stopping protesters breaking into the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square during a protest on March 17th, 1967. When his own cabinet turned on him and asked why he wouldn't criticise the Americans, he reportedly snapped "Because we can’t kick our creditors in the balls!!”’.]
Told by Bernard Donoughue, in 216, head of the Number 10 Policy Unit during Wilson’s time as PM.
https://www.forcesnews.com/news/harold-wilson-man-who-kept-us-out-vietnam
The Independent reports that the head of the British Army, and new General Chief of Staff, General Sir Roly Walker, is shilling on behalf of the British Industrial Military Complex. ‘The threat of multiple wars involving Russia, China and Iran breaking out in three years means that British forces must double their fire power to be ready to cope... the UK and its allies had to be ready “to deter or fight a war in three years”’ but it was not ‘inevitable.’ What does he want, and when does he want it? He’s calling for a tripling of modern weaponry by 2030. And who might benefit from that?
Health warning. Likely to result in sustained, uncontrollable laughter: ‘He added that “the need is urgent” if the Army was to “apply all strengths as a free-market democracy against the weaknesses of their rigid, autocratic, command economies”’.
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