Britain must be prepared to fight in war within three years – that is the stark message from the country’s new head of the Army.
General Sir Roland Walker made a keynote address to the RUSI Land and Warfare conference in his first speech in the role today.
He said the UK in particular faces danger from the ‘axis of upheaval’ and said the Army needs to double its fighting power by 2027.
He 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.’
The growing ‘axis of upheaval’ Mr Walker refers to includes countries like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
He said there is particular concern China might decide to invade Taiwan at some point before 2027.
In relation to Russia, he said even if Ukraine win the war, Russia would seek vengeance against the West for helping to support Ukriane.
Meanwhile, the threat posed by North Korea and Iran is that they continue to expand their nuclear capabilities.
He said in order for the British Army to strengthen, there needs to be upgrades to our methods of warfare so targets can be attacked from further away.
In the speech, he continued: ‘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‘That mindset is out of date.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.’
This speech comes after defence secretary John Healey said the current Army is ‘hollowed out’ and added that ‘procurement waste and neglected morale cannot continue’.
In response, the government has commissioned a defence review to assess the challenges facing the armed forces.
Mr Walker said he hopes this review will look at the reasons why British people don’t want to fight and hopes it opens up ‘the right conversations’.
This news comes after a group of former defence and security experts warned that the British Army must ‘prepare genuinely for war’ to deter threats.
The New Bletchley Network said the shrinking of army reserves in recent years caused the force to dip below ‘national critical mass’.
The warning also comes as questions of conscription to deter threats from Russia were raised earlier this year.
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