Army chief warns Britons will be forced to fight in the armed forces if Great Britain goes to war with Russia

British women and men must be prepared for a “whole of nation undertaking” if NATO goes to war with Russia, army chief warns

photo source The british army

Britain will have to be prepared to create a “citizen army” of thousands of people in the event of war with countries like Russia, the army chief has warned in an intervention.

General Sir Patrick Sanders said that if war broke out his army, including all reserves, would not be sufficient to defend the country, and that it was now necessary for Britain to lay the foundation for “national mobilisation”.

Speaking at a conference on armored warfare in south-west London, General Sanders said that in three years Britain should be able to increase its army to 130,000, including regular reserves, troops and a “strategic reserve” group. , it is understood to mean retired soldiers. Has been called back.

According to the latest data of the Defense Ministry, at present the total number of regulars and reservists of the Army is 102,520.

Army chief warns Britons will be forced to fight in the armed forces if Great Britain goes to war with Russia

“Our friends in Northern and Eastern Europe, who are feeling more acutely the proximity of the Russian threat, are already acting prudently, laying the foundation for national mobilization,” he said.

It is said that the Chief of General Staff is quite opposed to conscription, but he believes that in this time of great conflict, civilians should also be involved in the defense of the country.

“We need a military that can expand rapidly enough to enable the first echelon, provide resources to the second echelon, and train and equip the civilian military that will follow,”

“As the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee warned just last week, and as the Swedish Government has done, preparing Sweden for entry into NATO will enable our societies to deploy on war footing if needed. It is now not only desirable, but also necessary to take early steps.
“We will not be immune and as the pre-war generation we have to prepare just like that – and this is the undertaking of our entire country.”

Army chief warns Britons will be forced to fight in the armed forces if Great Britain goes to war with Russia

Asked about General Sanders’ comments, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson told us that “hypothetical scenarios” about potential future conflicts were “not helpful.” Asked whether he agreed with the general, the spokesperson simply replied “no”.
And on whether Rishi Sunak is ruling out recruitment in future circumstances, he said: “There is no suggestion of that. The government has no intention of implementing it. The British Army has always had a proud tradition of being a voluntary force. There are no plans to change this right now.”

General Sanders’ intervention comes just days after NATO military commander Admiral Rob Bauer said that the military alliance needs to be prepared for a conflict with Vladimir Putin’s forces in the next 20 years.

He said that if the conflict in Europe escalated, large numbers of civilians would have to be conscripted and that governments would need to consider “reservation, mobilization, or conscription”.

Admiral Bauer said: “The discussion is very broad. People have to understand that they have an important role to play… the realization that not everything is planned and not everything is going to be in vain over the next 15 to 20 years.”

General Sanders said that Britain would not be able to escape the consequences of total war and would have to be prepared for what might happen next. He said: “Ukraine brutally demonstrates that regular armies just start wars; Citizen armies conquer them.

Army chief warns Britons will be forced to fight in the armed forces if Great Britain goes to war with Russia

He stressed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “was not just about the black soil of Donbass, nor about the re-establishment of the Russian Empire, it was about defeating our way of life and system politically, psychologically and symbolically.” is about. How we responded as the pre-war generation will forever echo in history. Ukrainian bravery is buying time, for now.

General Sanders, who is due to leave his post this year to be replaced by Lieutenant General Sir Rollie Walker, has in the past been critical of army cuts and their effects. In 2022 he described the reduction in the size of the army as “distorting”, especially “as the land war in Europe and Putin’s regional ambitions extend well beyond the rest of the decade and into Ukraine”.

Last summer, he compared Army vehicles like the Challenger 2 and Warrior tanks to “rotary dial telephones in the iPhone age.” He said: “Our procurement record has been poor and our land industrial base is depleting. Additionally, our military reserves are not as capable and reliable as we should be.”

Speaking on Wednesday, General Sanders said: “Over the last 25 to 30 years, the size of the Army has halved; Over the last 12 years, we have absorbed 28 per cent of the cuts. And this was when “there was a fragile world order that our enemies wanted us to destroy.” I use that term carefully, given that the definition includes those who actively opposed our interests. Are or are enemies towards them.

While recruitment through public services has always been a problem, “applications to join the army are now at their highest in six years. The youth of our country are as ready as ever to seek adventure, to serve, to find out where they belong, and to better themselves. Every day I see the best of them, who remain selflessly committed to serving the armed forces. Generation Z continues to work with distinction like its peers of any other generation.

Army chief Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has revealed the military will be boosted with a massive £44bn program over the next decade. General Sanders said: “That money is only 19 percent committed. “During an election cycle, uncommitted money is quite vulnerable.”

Last week, former General Staff of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, had also targeted the declining size of the army. He said it had declined from 102,500 personnel in 2006 to 73,000 today and was “falling rapidly”.

Writing in , he drew comparisons to the 1930s, when the “wretched” state of Britain’s armed forces had failed to stop Hitler. “There appears to be a serious danger of history repeating itself,” he said.

Army chief warns Britons will be forced to fight in the armed forces if Great Britain goes to war with Russia

Pointing to growing geopolitical uncertainty, Lord Dannatt said: “If our armed forces are not strong enough to deter future aggression from Moscow or Beijing, it will be not a short war to contend with but a very There will be a big war.”

Army chief warns Britons will be forced to fight in the armed forces if Great Britain goes to war with Russia