The army must “prepare genuinely for war” to credibly deter threats, a group of former defence and security chiefs have signalled.
Offering advice to whoever is prime minister and defence secretary after the election, a report by the New Bletchley Network – which drew on ideas from a discussion between a panel of experts – said a “hollowing out” of the regular army and reserves over the years must be reversed, warning the size of the force may already be beneath “national critical mass”.
Among those who contributed to the discussion were Lord Mark Sedwill, a former cabinet secretary and national security adviser, Lord George Robertson, a former head of NATO and Labour defence secretary, and General Lord David Richards, a former head of the armed forces.
The intervention comes amid growing concern about a failure by Rishi Sunak’s government to increase defence spending in the Spring Budget, despite Defence Secretary Grant Shapps warning the UK was in a “pre-war world” and Russia still waging a full-scale war in Ukraine.
Focusing on the UK army, the report, published on Wednesday, warned “deterrence is based on credibility”.
“British Army credibility has been weakened by 20 plus years of hollowing out and diminished fighting power. Army morale is fragile,” it added.
The brief paper highlighted a “serious wake-up signal” from a senior figure in NATO who warned the British Army is no longer a top-level, or “Tier 1”, fighting force.
These comments, by a senior US general, were first revealed by Sky News last year.
The report said: “To be credible in deterrence terms we need to prepare genuinely for war and communicate this to potential foes, NATO and allies, and particularly to the British public.”
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Calls for ‘New Model Army’
It called for a “New Model Army” – widely respected and “ready to go to war”.
“We must signal to adversaries and potential adversaries the fact that we are strong and want to get stronger whilst at the same time having no interest in attacking or subverting any non-aggressive city or country,” the report said.
It stressed the importance of military mass – which has been allowed to shrink after repeated cost-saving cuts.
“Our land forces and reserves could be said to have fallen far below national critical mass. This must be reversed and the relationship between size and technology must be better understood and articulated.”
Whitehall urged to be ‘war-ready’
The report also championed a total reset of how the armed forces buy weapons and their supply chains to secure better value for money.
It urged for a new command structure in Whitehall to be “war-ready” and recommended the creation of a task force – like the one that delivered the COVID-19 vaccine – to drive change.
“We have to be bold and make difficult, sometimes unpopular, decisions if we are to deliver credible fighting power within realistic budgets and to meet the time imperative.”
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Other former senior officials who took part in the discussion on 27 February that generated the report included General Sir Richard Barrons, former Commander Joint Forces Command, General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and Brigadier Nigel Hall, a former army officer who founded the New Bletchley Network.
