Should we spend more on defence? | Richard Barrons

Speaking to Lucy Fisher on T&G on Sunday, former head of Britain’s Joint Forces Command Richard Barrons said that the British government should be spending more on defence.

Talking about the government's integrated review of 2021, he said "to save money in defence, it cut things quickly, without articulating how we were going to grow effective armed forces in the future. And then that growth at the time was way, way away, I mean, beyond five years away."

He added that spending on the defence budget should be of 3% of GDP during the next five years. He said: "Our forces have never been less ready in terms of size, training and general readiness to take on this kind of problem.

"So we're going to have to transform them and transform them for the digital age.

"So that's not buying the stuff we wanted in the 1990s, it's buying the stuff that we want in the 2030s, but more quickly, and we know how to do that, and that's going to cost money, I reckon, given the limits of absorption that come with these things, at least 3% of GDP for five years starting now would start to fill in the holes and get us on the right path."

Listen to Richard Barrons' full interview on Times Radio.

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[matthewalder]

We need to spend what ever is necessary to defend our selves

[trojanthedog]

Defence of the shores (borders) is the first business of government. Of course more resources should be placed there.

[echobay]

Yes. It was always a mistake reducing the size of our armed forces

[sailorduilio]

Perhaps reducing the russian mercenaries should be the task of some specialised Ukrainian/Foreign legion groups.

[bigjohn]

Yes we should get back to numbers at 2013 100, 000 plus soldiers To much of the defence spending has gone to the RN and RAF

[stealmysunshine]

How about spending it different? Weve had 20 years purely prepping for asymmetrical warfare - then suddenly Russia comes along so thats armoured forces and cyberwar. Scarily is how terrible our air defence isafter 30 years of no European threat - 4 SAM batteries abd not even air attaxk sirens

[theforeverchild]

500 billion over the next 5 years would be acceptable for now

[robertthorn]

Maybe the 'good soldier Schweik' factor is at play in the Russian army. Maybe their hearts just weren't in it.

[boknow]

I'd say dwindling it down is best but at some point defense build up and offense and many more like information into Russia and limited top money outside Russia

[hunslet]

Ultimately would more defence spending really be of benefit if we aren't willing to engage in a war with Russia? What use would those additional assets be?