Rishi Sunak risks failing in his role as 'wartime prime minister' unless he takes urgent action given the growing security threat posed by Vladimir Putin, it has been warned, with calls for a significant hike in spending.
have announced plans to boost defence spending significantly following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.is now at war with the West and NATO.
The general used a term to rank the strength of a country's military, with tier one regarded as a top-level power such as the United States, Russia, China and France and a status the UK also seeks to hold. Compounding the impact of the cuts is a chronic failure by the Ministry of Defence and the army over the past 20 years to procure some of its most needed equipment - such as armoured vehicles and new communication systems - despite spending billions of pounds.
"The PM's wartime approach is currently to cut the army, hollow it out further by gifting [equipment to Ukraine] and with no plans to replace [the weapons] for five to seven years," the first defence source said. "The money needed to fix defence is small when compared to other areas of spending like health, welfare and debt interest. So this is a matter of government choices, not affordability," he told Sky News.
Retired generals, admirals and air chief marshals have been sounding the alarm for years, finding their voices typically after choosing to stay quiet while in uniform.But unusually, even serving officials have started to speak more bluntly in public about their depleted capabilities - a clear signal of serious concern within the'Known capability risks'
"I think that, through today's lens of war in Ukraine, on land, some of those decisions feel very uncomfortable."
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