Army chief: UK won’t go to war alone ever again

IT IS ‘almost unthinkable’ Britain would go to war alone again, according to a top commander of 30,000 troops.

Major General Patrick Sanders, who leads the Army’s Iron Division, said Britain will ‘always expect to be part of a wider force’ such as Nato.

Speaking at a huge military exercise yesterday, he told soldiers: ‘We are never going to do this alone … investing into inter- operability is no longer a discretion.’

His comments came as it emerged a senior US army officer had become the first American general to serve in a British Army division.

Brigadier General Mike Tarsa was appointed deputy commander of Iron Division – also known as 3rd Division – last month. The new post, which puts him in charge of UK troops deployed on the battlefield, has been created as part of plans to tighten relations between British and US forces. It comes after devastating cuts to Britain’s troops and concerns about recruitment levels across all three services.

Yesterday, General Tarsa observed a land power demonstration by parts of the division at Larkhill Army Camp in Salisbury, alongside General Sanders. During the exercise, Apache helicopters, Warrior and Challenger tanks, snipers and infantry pretended to take out enemy invaders.

General Tarsa told the Mail: ‘We will never fight alone, [we] will always be in a joint setting. Our ability to come together as a coalition team is very important.’

He added: ‘The challenges both [the UK and US] face is we don’t have as much capacity slash capability and it makes combined and coali- tion efforts an absolute necessity. Inter-operability and the integration which is now occurring will become common place.’

The last time Britain fought a solo conflict was in the Falklands in 1982. Cuts to manpower and equipment have raised questions by former top brass on whether the UK could defend the islands if tensions with Argentina worsened.

But defence sources last night insisted Britain could still fight its own war if necessary.

The 3rd Division, based at Bulford Camp, is the only one at continual operational readiness in the UK. It is the Army’s reaction force and can deploy, as part of a larger multinational military effort, to anywhere in the world within days.

As many as 3,000 of its troops will begin training in January to join Nato’s 5,000-strong Spearhead Force in 2017. The rapid reaction force – set up to counter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe – will be able to deploy anywhere within 48 hours.

Following cuts to troop numbers in 2010, the regular Army now stands at 82,000. Earlier this year the US army announced plans to cut 40,000 troops.

‘Combined efforts a necessity