Three years to prepare for war: New head of British army says UK's fighting force needs to double
23 July 2024, 16:46 | Updated: 23 July 2024, 16:53
The new head of the British army has warned that the UK needs to be ready to fight - and win - a war within three years.
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General Sir Roland Walker said, in that time, the fighting force needs to double and technology needs to be advanced so that “no one would dare” start a war with us.
Giving a keynote address to the RUSI Land and Warfare conference, the chief of the general staff said: “If we can double, then triple, our fighting power, any British land force will be able to destroy a force at least three times its size and keep on doing that.
“That way we will have every confidence in being ready and able to fight anyone and win and it’ll also mean our soldiers have every reason to stay in the Army.
“We can double in three years with a hybrid system, and then triple when the new fighting systems come online.
“We will sense twice as far, decide in half the time, and deliver effects over double the distance with half as many munitions.
“Our Ukrainian partners are beginning to do this with great results now.”
He warned that the UK and its allies are facing a growing threat from an ‘axis of upheaval’ consisting of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, adding that “nothing about the end of the war in Ukraine will change that”.
General Roland told reporters he didn’t need any more money or any more troops to achieve his goal of increasing the Army’s fighting power.
Instead, he said there needs to be more flexibility in the budget - some hundreds of millions of pounds - to be able to upgrade the method of warfare, so that targets can be attacked from a further distance.
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He said the force needs to move away from the “old way of fighting” but expressed the importance of still being able to hold ground on the frontline.
In his speech, he said: “We have struggled to shake a ‘big army’ mindset where numbers of troops determine fighting power, where the default answer to being better is ‘more troops and more money’.
“That mindset is out of date. We are, in fact, a medium sized army which we should embrace as the catalyst for deeper integration to make a more powerful joint force.”
On Monday, the new Labour defence secretary John Healey warned the issues facing the armed forces were “much worse” than he thought they’d be.
He pointed to “hollowed out” ranks, low morale and a recruitment crisis, as well as wasted equipment.
A defence review has been commissioned by the government to look at the country’s capabilities and resilience.
General Roland Walker told reporters he hoped the review would also look at how to have “the right conversation” with the country about how we will defend ourselves, if it comes to it, highlighting a lack of will among British civilians to want to fight.
