Tory Tobias Ellwood, the British Army’s top official, has admitted that the British army is in “dire straits” after an American general criticized British forces | Politics news

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The head of the British House of Commons Defense Committee has said the British military is in “dire straits” after Sky News revealed that a US general privately told the defense secretary that the British armed forces were no longer considered a top-level fighting force.

Defense sources revealed that the US general said that this decline in war fighting ability needs to be reversed faster than planned in the aftermath of the Russian war in Ukraine.

They told Deborah Haynes, Sky News’ defense and security editor, this should include increasing the defense budget by at least £3 billion a year and halting a plan to shrink the army further.

Responding to the US general’s comments, Defense Committee Chairman Tobias Ellwood said people should be “very concerned” about the armed forces’ current capabilities.

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The Conservative Party chairman called on the government to reverse “dramatic cuts” to the army because its equipment was “outdated”.

Ellwood said there had been “huge investment” in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force in recent years, but added: “The Army is in tatters.”

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He continued: “Our army is simply too small, we have reduced it by 10,000 soldiers.

“I hope the Defense Review looks at these issues and reverses some of the significant cuts made two years ago.

“It is up to the Cabinet and Number 10 to realize that the world is changing – we are now at war in Europe, we need to move to the war base.

“We’ve become complacent. We need to invest to make sure we keep the good people that are out there, but there aren’t enough of them and the equipment is outdated now.”

He noted that the UK’s armored fleet of Challenge Twos, Warriors and Scimitars “is 20, 30 or 50 years old without any upgrades”.

“I am glad that voices are now coming out to say this is not acceptable,” Elwood said.

“We underestimated our capacity – we had 900 tanks for a few decades [ago]We will now go down to 148.”

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3:40 British Army ‘no longer at the top level’

The defense committee chairman added that leaning towards “cyber security” is necessary, “but this does not mean that you do it at the expense of your ground forces.”

European powers such as France and Germany announced plans to dramatically increase defense spending after Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine last year.

Sunak has yet to make any meaningful pledge to expand his defense coffers, instead seeking to “update” a defense policy review due to be published on March 7 ahead of the spring budget that will indicate whether there is any new money for the military.

The defense crisis was a generation after repeated cuts in the size of the three armed services since the end of the Cold War by successive Conservative, Coalition and Labor governments to save money for peacetime priorities.

Read more: Sending Ukrainian tanks weakens British forces British Army chief says thousands of new anti-tank weapons have been ordered in a £229m deal.

In addition, the need to supply Ukraine with much of the army’s remaining stocks of weapons and ammunition to help the Ukrainian army fight Russia added pressure even more.

In 2020, Boris Johnson, as prime minister, increased defense spending by £16 billion – the biggest rise since the Cold War, but not enough to close the gaps.

Sunak has so far resisted calls to follow his predecessor, Liz Truss, to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, from just over 2% now.

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