Weak Army ‘would not last two months’ against Putin

BRITAIN could not fight Russia for more than two months, the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff has admitted.

Lt Gen Sir Rob Magowan said the UK’S Armed Forces would have to manage the “operational risk” that came with not having the resources he would like in future wars.

His remarks come after Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, told MPS he had lobbied Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt for more money to be spent on defence in the recent Budget, but failed to secure an increase.

Appearing at the Commons defence committee, the senior Royal Marines officer said: “We’ve been very clear that the amount of money we’re spending on munitions at the moment ... which is significant, does not meet, in all areas, the threats that we face.”

“We’ve been clear that we need to spend more money, above the programme of record, on what we call integrated air missile defence.”

When Mark Francois, the former Armed Forces minister, put to him that the UK “couldn’t fight [Vladimir] Putin for more than a couple of months in a full-on shooting war because we don’t have the ammunition and the reserves of equipment to do it”, Sir Rob acknowledged that was true.

Mr Shapps added that any such conflict would be fought alongside Nato allies which could collectively outgun Russia, rather than by the UK alone.

Mr Shapps said: “For people watching and hearing that the UK isn’t ready for war exclusively with Russia, it’s important to understand that because we are in Nato and (mutual defence agreement) Article 5 exists, we would never be in that situation.”

It comes after a damning inquiry by the Commons defence committee found that Britain’s “increasingly overstretched” Armed Forces are not ready for a war with Russia.

The report, which was published last month, found the Government “will never achieve war-fighting or strategic readiness” without urgent reforms to reverse a recruitment crisis and would also need to dramatically boost Britain’s stockpile of weapons and ammunition.