Britain's Shrinking Military - From Cold War Colossus to Cash-Strapped Shadow

War with Russia is often spoken of in 2023, but the drastic reduction in the size of Britain's armed forces is often overlooked. Here, I compare the sizes of Britain's military in 1991, when it was specifically trained and deployed to resist a Soviet assault into Western Europe, and 2023. The figures are fairly shocking, something the US government recently noted as well.

Help support my channel:

Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.

Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; United States Air Force; UK Parliament; Ministry of Defence; Royal Navy; British Army; Royal Air Force; Bundeswehr; US Navy; Shaun Farmer; John Fielding; Android Nikolaienko; Simon Q; R Soner; fabric; Simon; Wonkabar007; Ronnie Macdonald.

[ColinH]

The state of our armed forces is a national disgrace. What you have said certainly needed saying, Mark. Thanks.

[justdoingitjim]

While in the Marine Corps in the early 70's, I trained with British Marines. Their kit was top notch, the best that money could buy and their field rations made ours look like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Imagine reaching into your rucksack and pulling out a can with an entire deboned, "Fricasee" chicken. They had cream camo makeup in kits with mirrors, while we had hard camo sticks in "push-up cans" you had to heat up just to apply it and when it cooled it was just caked on like dried mud. They had individual med kits that rivaled our platoon size med kits and the list goes on and on. To see these proud soldiers reduced to a fraction of their potential readiness is just a sad thing.

[bullet-catcherhohoho]

Serving in the late 80s, British Army as a driver in Germany, even then it was a pretence. We were always under strength with manpower and a lot of our vehicles broke down a lot. Very old equipment.
Even when i finished basic training, i had to give back half my uniform, because they did not have enough for the next lot of recruits. I was supposed to get some new clothing at my new units, got some but never a full issued set, but lucky being ex TA, so had a lot of my own clothing etc. Morale at the time was very low, no money for any type of adventurous training or doing anything, some of our troops like B troop stalwarts, since they mostly would not even run, their lads never even really drove anything, you can imagine 3 years of doing nothing. Turn over rate was around 89% of lads getting out after their first 3 years. It was around 86% of the whole army leaving after their first 3 years.
So on paper we were a massive army, but reality NAH. I would presume though it was the same for the Russians.

[BroccoliRocks]

It seems like Britain's economy has gotten worse since the 1990s too.
The money saved by more than halving the military budget did not go toward helping the poor and the middle class.
Rebuilding the military will likely be done on the backs of the poor and middle class. In 2023 with the burden of a cost of living crisis.
Thank you Dr. Felton for the timely and informative video.

[Pottersdrummer]

Mark, as an ex soldier its been heartbreaking watching this happen over the last 30 years. All governments have let us down. This is going to haunt us. It leaves complete reliance on other forces without the experience and culture to fight conflicts. Please keep your content coming and thanks again for all the great content.

[AN-ntuv]

You name it, same here in Germany: Just the battle tanks went from close to 3000 down to 266. They cannot even replace the 14 given to Ukraine.

[MrFacemeltify]

Watching this as an American, it really seems like that has been the trend for western Europeans to become utterly reliant on outside powers to save costs. Whether it be relying on American defense, Russia for energy, or China for manufacturing, western Europe is making the same mistakes now as the empires proceeding them in having the core pillars of stabilization outsourced beyond their borders.

[francescoboselli]

As an Italian I can't stop to feel related to this problem: our military is facing a similar problems.
Although I have to say that compared to Germany and the UK, it seems that we are the one who better "preserved" out former numbers of the cold war eras (although our army back then was smaller than the British or the German one)

[Matelot]

When I joined the Royal Navy in 1984 we had more than 18 of just the Leander class frigates let alone the Type 22. type 21 and the type 42's. The deliberate rundown of our navy is absolutely scandalous.

[abestm]

I am 70 this year. I did ten years as ground crew in the RAF de mobbing in 1980. My last 4 years were at RAF Lyneham. We had 96 C130J aircraft stationed there. Its an absolute joke what we are left with now. Just a cardboard replica. I thank You for chipping in with your very well respected knowledge Sir. Though, I doubt very much however, that it will change the fat cats minds. 1936 all over again -- Peace in our time. -- Won't happen now, will it. -- Much respect to you Dr Felton.

[emilepotvin]

Great video Mark!!
As a Canadian, I today discovered that Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany offered to purchase Anticosti island, off of the canadian coast, from the canadian government in 1937. Mainly to operate U-Boat in the St. Lawrence region.
It would be a great and interesting video topic to hear from you!

[lewistivey]

It really sucks. I’m currently in the British army and there’s talks of tons of cuts being made to reduce personnel EVEN further.

[joetheplumber]

Dr. Felton- I’m sure that the men and women of the British Armed Forces are appreciative of you raising the alarm bells.
Politicians Talk. Soldiers Walk.

[marcaurel]

Thanks Mark! So true. And if you then look at Germany, as I do as a German artillery officer in the years 1989-1994, you can only shake your head and burst into tears. So many years of decline. Especially here in Germany, after the end of the cold war, it was not possible to win a single vote by demanding a higher defense budget. And that is the real tragedy. A defense budget (up to a certain margin) should never be negotiable. At no times. Nowhere. As democracies, we must be able to defend ourselves.

An in the end nobody wanted to listen to the few voices that repeatedly warned: "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" ... "If You Want Peace, Prepare For War."

[ianmack]

I joined RAF in 1991 and left in the 2000's and can relate to this video. we went from exercises designed to hold of the Russians in Germany, that changed in the late nineties to becoming an expeditionary force, expected to deploy to the Gulf

[mch]

As an American, this helps to put the current situation in perspective. I have heard that the German military is facing a similar problem as well

[AgentXRifle]

30 years of savings on military hasn’t paid off…

[jerryware]

Using an internet search and Dr. Felton's numbers, the entire active duty British armed forces are smaller than the US Marine Corp and have far less jet fighters. The RN only having 30 line combat vessels is shocking. Got a tour of HMS Churchill back in the 80s when she made port in Norfolk, VA. Three of us from USS Bainbridge took one of the Churchill crewman with us to see the sights in Washington, DC. Fun times.

[AshGTE]

I left the Army in 2015 and a good reason for my leaving was the absolute ineptitude of my chain of command. The system had become one of box ticking and internal bureaucracy. The job at hand became unbelievably difficult to perform and this depleted the moral of the juniors. I loved my time but my last unit was a totally unfit for purpose. It was 40% undermanned too.

[dmram-]

The Navy part is really the most troubling thing when looking at UK's military as a whole. Long ago top officials already recognized the need for a powerful Navy to protect overseas interests and secure safe shipping to the homeland. Us Americans also eventually realized this and built a massive armada ourselves. Thus it is concerning that both the British and Americans have been neglecting their navies (though the US not quite as much) at a time when the biggest threat to our security as nations that mostly trade lies on the other side of the world separated by an ocean.