UK must be able to ‘fight and win wars on land’, outgoing army chief says

15 comments

1. Not much point in having an army if you don’t want to use it to win wars.

2. before they can win anything they need to fix there recruitment problem.
   [Damning figures for UK military recruitment with 54% giving up on the process last year (forces.net)](https://www.forces.net/services/army/damning-figures-uk-military-recruitment-54-giving-process-last-year)

3. I agree, the Welsh have been coasting for too long /s

4. The UK won’t be able to fight and win a war on land for at least another generation. We committed a division to the invasion of Iraq and a Brigade each to Iraq and Afghanistan which I doubt we could provide now. The UK provides a huge amount of air and sea power to NATO, especially in terms of resupply. There should be an effort by the UK to update land capacity.

5. Ultimately, no matter how folk feel about the subject. It always comes down to boots on the ground. In a world of sheep and wolves, you need sheepdogs.

6. In other news, ships should be able to float on water and airplanes should be able to fly through the air, more news at 10.

7. Except we’ve historically been a Naval power for hundreds of years.

8. If nothing else, we need to be able to defend our borders. Geopolitics is only getting tenser and climate change is going to see war over resources become more common. The last thing we will want/need then is a military that is understaffed and has equipment over a decade out of date.

9. They can’t even fix the fucking potholes. Stop letting posh people play war games with the working class.

10. Depends what that entails. The historic stance is “the UK needs enough army to maintain competency. We can scale up in war because island”. I don’t see any need to change that position.

11. We have a working (ish) nuclear deterrent. 

    We don’t need to put hundreds of thousands of us on land anytime soon. 

12. The head of the fighting wars on land department thinks fighting wars on land is important?

13. Might want to stop hating on nationalism if you need people to feel patriotic enough to fight your wars then.

    Also, stop importing the third world who don’t care one bit about defending it.

14. The number of times ex-chiefs of staff say that after leaving is getting annoying. It’s been going on for 40 years and they all wait until they get their pensions before saying anything.
    If you feel strongly enough about it resign straight away and take it to the MSM.

15. The trouble is the higher command think drones are the answer to winning a war. They aren’t. Boots on the ground is what you need to take it and hold it.
    The recruitment has totally failed, by design I suspect. Boys and their toys is what the CofS and defence minister are doing with equipment over bodies.