British Army to be most lethal army in Europe by end of decade, chief says

The British Army will be the most modern and the most lethal army in Europe by the end of the decade, the head of the service has said.

In an exclusive interview with Forces News, General Sir Patrick Sanders said the British Army had adapted what was set out by the Future Soldier programme at a "real pace".

"We know that we could be required to fight and certainly we need to be able to deter the threats in Europe this decade," the Chief of the General Staff explained.

#forcesnews #britisharmy #military #army

[marckart]

The UK army is one of the best. The UK government is the problem. I whole heartedly believe if the UK was in any conflict, we would punch above our weight. However.. all I see is decline in budget and active troops. I do not believe the UK would be the most lethal army in Europe if we keep reducing our active troop count.... and tank count. Soon I'll be able to count the amount of tanks in our army with two hands!

[davidneal]

American former army soldier here. I’ve always been impressed by the British – competent, thoughtful, and they often have a great sense of humor. I’ve also noticed the tendency to be negative towards their own government and country… Everyone feels like the nitwits are in charge and they’re mad about it. Over here the fools really are in charge but people don’t seem to mind as much. Anyway, good luck to the Brits. I couldn’t imagine a better ally.

[MrDK]

The highest degree of respect for the UK's servicemembers - they are highly trained like few others.
However, the British Armed Forces are in a pitiful state and have a long road ahead to regain preparedness for full-scale war. In that regard, I see countries like Poland and even Romania taking more serious steps than the UK.

[Bob]

He is utterly deluded. Poland is buying over 1, 000 new tanks 1400 new IFVs and 600 new artillery systems, doubling its manpower to around four times the size of the British army, getting dozens of new fighters - F-16, F-35 and FA-50, 48 Patriot batteries, 1, 700 new drones, 96 Apaches (almost twice as many as Britain) and is looking at up to 500 HIMARS launchers !

[Rempai]

As somebody in the British Army, I have no idea what he's talking about. The infantry see none of these upgrades. We operate warriors from 1982 and AJAX is a fever dream. Moving to Boxer in maybe 2045 if it stops getting pushed back.

The Challenger 3 fleet will be a substantial 150 vehicles. That will last approximately a few weeks in peer to peer combat, as we have seen tanks are sitting ducks for artillery, ATGM's and mines.

Even though the Eurofighter typhoon is a fantastic jet with great missiles it's getting a little old and outdated.

Apache is great.

We have no money for proper training, our vehicle fleet is mostly red and gets passed around more than Mia Malkova.

The headshed are completely deluded from years in Afghan and we look at the limited losses we sustained from that conflict and think it translates to another peer to peer conflict.

[stumps]

The UK is one of the best and professional armies in the world, unfortunately it’s embarrassingly to small, the British Army needs to be 3 times its current size, but our spineless government is cutting it yet again. This guy is just spouting the party line, must have been promised a golden handshake job when he retires.

[TheBoogeyMan]

The British army is always going to be the best trained and one of the best equipped in Europe, unfortunately the government is the problem, cutting numbers to personnel and cutting funding is just letting it down, more money in getting people in the army and upgrading and increasing inventory would be a nice thing to see for our shrinking forces

[PiperXX]

How many times has this been said, government has always been good at delivering the words the military want to hear but they seem to forget to deliver the goods they need.

[xkeyscore]

I've just completed my 22 years in the Army. I wouldn't change it for anything...But, its not in a very good place, recruitment is in a very bad place. Up the pay and treat them better, this in turn will help recruitment and retention

[Roar]

"The most lethal" man for man perhaps, but the British Army is still far too small.

[HalloweentubeUK]

It hurts my pride so much to see how weve declined as a great nation. We have the skills and mindset to be the best but no tools provided by the pen pushers.

[ptonpc]

I'm sure all 5 soldiers left in the Army, by the time the government ditches everyone, will be very well armed.

[veyblu]

Seems hard to believe given our allies no longer consider the UK a tier one military; our own military leaders admit we can't fight longer than a couple of months; and our standing army is the smallest since Napoleon.

[Revup]

Ukraine should teach us that while technology has its place it doesn't provide depth, and there is no substitute for numbers. ...digitisation? Less platforms but more but how long will the technology last faced with the scale of another war in Europe? In 1914, after the biggest reforms the British Army had ever experienced under Lord Haldene, Britian sent the 'best trained most lethal Army in Europe' into Belgium. Six divisions of the BEF, British Expeditionary Force, (Expeditionary...ther's that word again!). There were 90, 000 men (we only have 78, 000 in the entire Army today). By Christmas 1914 the 'old contemptibles' had suffered 98, 000 casualties! The devastation to the ranks of the professional army was such that Lord Kitchener had to mount a national campaign to recruit an entirely new Army, ('your country needs you'). My great uncle went to that war, he was made an officer because he'd learned to march in the BB (seriously, its in his records), he never came home. In more modern times I have served in his Regiment, and we simply don't have enough people to even push the buttons on all new technology. Sorry General Sir Patrick, but we've heard it all before, twice before infact....small and lethal simply doesn't win land wars in Europe!

[RalphBrooker-gniv]

Served 12 years in the infantry: 1978-1990. Lads losing feet’s during ‘hard routine’ on Banner. Having to spend fortunes at Silvermans. The equipment was appalling then. I don’t know about kit today. But the army has been broken. Throwing money into demonstrably unworkable projects (AJAX, the mobile abattoir) to having idiots like Boris Johnson lecture us on the look of the modern battlefield.
Sir Patrick Sanders is whistling through his navel on an unchallenged platform. I’m 62. NATO+EU will have to fight a major war on European soil in my lifetime. I doubt we’ll be ready. And for all the Tory flag-shaggers out there, it’s that shower of shithouses which has decimated the British Army. And Ben Wallace wanted to replace Jens Stoltenberg as NATO Sec-Gen! We live in cuckoo land. 😊

[cabalamat]

The fact is that Britain (pop 68 million) has a smaller army in wartime than Finland (population 5.5 million). Sure Britain's army during peacetime is bigger than Finland's, but armies are for when there's a war. So even if individual soldiers are well trained (which they are), that's not necessarily enough. Quantity has a quality all of its own.

[jeffreystrudwick]

The BEF in 1914 was the most highly trained army in the world but it only lasted about 4 months superb soldiers but not enough of them still the case today

[jonathancunliffe]

2021 Kabul evacuation? British army didn’t have the resources to take an airfield to get there own people out, had to rely on America. Best army in Europe? Poland is putting us the shame, we are an embarrassment

[davidduke]

The British Governent has tried to let the Armed Forces run like a private company. The vast majority of it has been outsourced to private companies on contract.

The diversity ticket has led to a general weakening as you can say one thing to one person but not to another as it will cause offence.

I have personally worked in a Military environment for 34 years and I do not think we would last long in a convential theatre on our own.

It's a sad state of affairs.

[gerrycooper]

The most important thing, over combat capabilities is are they diverse enough?