{"id":691867,"date":"2026-01-12T21:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/691867\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T21:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:23:30","slug":"war-could-be-coming-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/691867\/","title":{"rendered":"War could be coming to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tHead of the UK armed forces tells MPs ‘we don\u2019t have a complete plan for how we would mobilise the National Health Service’\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

The NHS is not ready to handle the British military casualties that would occur in a war with Russia<\/a>, the head of the UK\u2019s armed forces has warned.<\/p>\n

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, last month echoed calls in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) \u2013 essentially a shopping list for war \u2013 for the whole of society to prepare for the increasing probability of a Russian attack on a Nato country.<\/p>\n

But Knighton on Monday warned that the NHS was not ready for the \u201cmass casualties\u201d that would occur in an \u201call-out\u201d Nato war with Russia.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

He also admitted that the plans set out in the SDR \u2013 such as boosting cyber defences, new nuclear submarines, increased troop numbers and more munitions factories \u2013 are unaffordable under current defence budgets.<\/p>\n

His comments echo concerns raised by one of its authors in comments to The i Paper last week<\/a>, although Knighton refused to comment on reports that he warned Sir Keir Starmer of a \u00a328bn funding shortfall last month.<\/p>\n

The apparent funding gap has sparked fresh concerns about the UK\u2019s preparedness for war.<\/p>\n

Gaps in \u2018specialist\u2019 medical skills<\/p>\n

Appearing at the Commons Defence Committee, Knighton highlighted \u201ca number of gaps in specialist skills\u201d in the Defence Medical Services, which ensures armed forces personnel are fit to fight.<\/p>\n

But he went on: \u201cIf we ended up in an all-out conflict under Nato Article 5 and sustained mass casualties, the defence medical system is not set up to do that \u2013 it would have to plug into the National Health Service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knighton added: \u201cI have every confidence, given the way the NHS and the brilliant people in the NHS and the Defence Medical Services responded historically, that we would do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut right now we don\u2019t have a complete plan for how we would mobilise the National Health Service in the event of armed conflict at a Nato Article 5 level.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe don\u2019t have a holistic national plan for how we would mobilise the National Health Service in times of all-out war in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a328bn funding gap in MoD budget<\/p>\n

Knighton, meanwhile, refused to comment on the reported \u00a328bn shortfall in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) budget over the next four years.<\/p>\n

The funding gap is said to have prompted Sir Keir Starmer to order a key MoD document, the defence investment plan (Dip), to be overhauled.<\/p>\n

The Dip, which will set out how the Government\u2019s long-term defence plans will be paid for, was originally due to be published in the autumn.<\/p>\n

Knighton told the committee the MoD \u201cdoes not have a date\u201d for when the plan will be released, but added the department was \u201cworking flat out\u201d on it, and was considering both cuts to existing programmes as well as funding boosts as it looks to boost war readiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you have to do is make some judgments about what you prioritise \u2013 how big the contingencies are going to be,\u201d Knighton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those things are options under consideration but also so is the level of ambition we might take and these are just straightforward facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under questioning, he admitted: \u201cCould we deliver the whole of the programme we currently have and do all of the things that we would want to in the SDR with the money we have got \u2013 no.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere, the committee asked Knighton whether he believed British soldiers would be safe and well-resourced enough to take on peacekeeping duties in Ukraine, should the war conclude.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t deploy our armed forces if we\u2019re not happy that they\u2019re going to be safe, and I\u2019m confident, having been closely involved in the work on the \u2018coalition of the willing\u2019 planning, that we have a means of meeting the requirements that have been set, and this additional funding will reduce the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head of the UK armed forces tells MPs ‘we don\u2019t have a complete plan for how we would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2993,2000,299,5187,211,3027,62146,771],"class_list":{"0":"post-691867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-defence","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-nhs","13":"tag-politics-news","14":"tag-strategic-defence-review","15":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115884235520519979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}