British army chief demands plans to cut troop numbers to 73,000 – the smallest size since the Napoleonic era – are reversed after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
British army chief demands plans to cut troop numbers to 73,000 – the smallest size since the Napoleonic era – are reversed after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
3 comments
I mean it does seem a bit of poor time to be downsizing.
Still that’s never stopped the Tory’s before.
One never plans for the last war, one needs to plan for the “next” war.
The Army should be brought back at least too 100-110,000 soldiers. That would reverse the cuts made over the last decade. Ideally, the army should go back to where it was the last time a dictator invaded a sovereign nation: 160,000 in 1991.
The Navy should be increased from the current 30,000 sailors to 40,000 at least, ideally again, 1991 levels of 50-60,000
The RAF should be increased to about 45,000.
The problem is this will take years to achieve. Soldiers, sailors and airmen take time to train, and you can only train so many at a time. Plus this will take longer. This isn’t like the 1930s when the army went from 500,000 to 3 million in 5 years. War is more complicated than ever. I’m not even sure if there’s the will or the money to deliver an army that big this decade, let alone in 5 years. It’s much easier to sack soldiers than train them