Britain is at risk of ‘hiding behind its allies’ in Ukraine due to cut in defence spending

focusing too much on the size of the army uh tends to make the numbers totemic in themselves I think the really important thing is to make sure whatever the size of the Army is and I would like to see it larger than the current planned reduction down to 73 000 but the important thing is that whatever the size of the Army is it's properly equipped and it's capable of of doing its job and what we've seen over quite a number of years and it's been described as such is a hollowing out of the army I think even Ben Wallace himself has has used that expression um it's no good having an army of whatever size if it's not capable of doing a job it hasn't got the right amount of equipment and of course this is the uncomfortable thing for the treasury Warfare and Technology moves on so the Army indeed the Navy and the Air Force need to have equipment at the highest Cutting Edge of Technology but there are old-fashioned aspects to Warfare as well which of course is what they were in Ukraine has demonstrated so the future Army has to be a blend of high-tech modern equipment but also keeping capable amounts of the more traditional equipment such as main battle tanks self-propelled artillery and armored infantry fighting vehicles and we haven't got sufficient plans and resourcing to do all those things at the present moment um and with Ben Wallace saying that he's um stepping down anyway I mean obviously we don't know you know what's gonna who's gonna be defense secretary who's going to be in power and then over the next couple of years but is that something that you're concerned about you seem to you seem to be talking about him as a as a as a great supporter supporter of the ideas that you you also hold dear well In fairness to Ben what is he has caught a pretty bloody battle with the treasury for most of the time it's not all the time but he's been a defense secretary um and he sport a battle against a very changing set of circumstances um last year when you recall we had very many number of prime ministers we had um Jeremy Hunt calling for three percent of GDP to be spent on defense we had Liz truss when she was prime minister calling for it um we've got Richard cernack talking about two and a half percent um so there is a fluctuating picture as far as defense spending is concerned at the present moment we're only just over over two percent if we want to take the defense of this country and our contribution to European security and NATO seriously we have got to increase the amount of money that the government spends on defense and that's what Ben Wallace has been arguing for and I think frankly at the end of four years the defense secretary um he's had enough and um he's going to stand out from Parliament because his constituency goes but um I don't criticize him I criticize the overall stance that the government has taken of not being prepared to increase the amount of Defense the amount of money we're spending on defense um how much of this we've been talking about climate change excuse me this morning Lord Janet and we were talking about what you know heat waves and what's happening in Europe and then what we can actually do here and there is a kind of political narrative right now from some quarters that you know we can't be we can't be doing with net zero right now we've got we've got more important immediate things in other words the cost of living Etc and there are people of course who will kick against that and say that's not true you always need to be worried about this it's an ongoing battle um is there a similar argument to be made here that you have to get the balance right between having a healthy military that makes clear that we or whoever is a serious power while not wasting money or attributing money to that when times are tough and when everyone needs some of that money well what you're getting at is the overall challenge that is faced by government and that is to set spending priorities um I'm afraid you have to come back to the age-old argument which is true that the first duty of government is to adequately prepare um yes prepare is a good enough word um for the defense of this country and the Safety and Security of its people um and the integrated review which originally was published in 2021 made a reasonable star but trying to look at what Britain felt that he needed to do across the world in defense terms in the future and we saw this much wanted tilt towards the indo-pacific fine um China is of course a rising concern but principally China is America's concern America needs to challenge and compete particularly with China in the Pacific and Pacific is very much America's backyard if you look the other way as it were but we have made um Savannah Provisions to be able to support the Americans there's no problem with that but it's the overall balance within defense that we're not getting right but of course the rude wake-up call is this brutal land war in Ukraine the land War back in Europe again and the disappointing thing is that the integrated review refresh which came out a few months ago um didn't sufficiently to my mind and to many other commentators in my mind really acknowledge the change in the world circumstances and you come back to the point that I made at the beginning yes Warfare is about modern technology and that's really really important but there are ugly aspects of warfare that are old-fashioned and you've got to continue to provide for them and reducing our tank force to be specific from 220 or down to 148 that's a significant reduction but not replacing the warrior infantry fighting vehicle with a modern version is another significant reduction to our capability do we think wherever are going to have to get involved in a war like Ukraine very hard to say but if we haven't got the capability we certainly won't be able to and and there is this rather nagging accusation that um whereas countries like Poland in in Europe are significantly increasing their land defense capability maybe we're going to be hiding somewhat behind those allies is that the right thing to do okay given the UK's reputation uh and its pride in itself as being the leading military power in Europe

Channel: Times Radio

Views: 9,539

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Id: Q4i8Wk_TlDA

Length: 6min 14sec (374 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 18 2023