British House of Lords warns of U.K.'s weak military due to low recruitment, calls on civilians to "be ready to fight"

By kevinhughes // 2024-10-03

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A recently published report from the British House of Lords has warned that the United Kingdom's military recruitment is dangerously low. The report called on the U.K.'s civilian population to "be ready to fight" in case the country goes to war. The paper, titled "Ukraine: A Wake-Up Call," written by the House of Lords' International Relations and Defense Committee, acknowledges the weaknesses in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's assumptions regarding "deterrence." Chaired by Lord de Mauley, the committee initiated the study in February 2024, two years after the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, with the goal of reevaluating the conflict's effects for British defense policies. (Related: Report: U.K military would exhaust capabilities after just 2 months of war.) "We identified two key lessons. First, our deterrence strategy toward Russia clearly failed. If we are to restore the credibility of NATO's nuclear and conventional deterrence posture towards [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, we must develop a clearer understanding of the reasons for this failure," the report said. "Secondly, the invasion exposed significant weaknesses in both the U.K.'s and NATO's military strength, and the U.K.'s ability to sustain large-scale warfare," the report continued. "Successive governments have attempted to maintain the notion of the U.K. as a global power, but the war in Ukraine has been a wake-up call, laying bare the gap between that ambition and reality."

British Army not large enough and not effective enough to sustain a major conflict

The report portrays a worrying picture of the British Army's capability to contribute sufficiently to NATO's deterrence strategy. "All in all, the evidence we heard points to the current size of the British Army being inadequate. While size is not the only measure of capability, we are concerned that the Army cannot, as currently constituted, make the expected troop contribution to NATO. We therefore question whether the British Army is prepared to meet the growing threat posed by Russia to European security," the report stated. The current size of the British Army is 75,166 regular troops and 183,000 personnel across all branches of the military with only 80,000 of these personnel playing a frontline combat role. This would not be enough to support a whole year of fighting in an attrition-based conflict. The House of Lords called upon Prime Minister Keir Starmer to produce a plan that "resonates with citizens, emphasizing the importance of national security in their daily lives and moving beyond the notion that defense is solely the military's responsibility." The report also warned that while there was a danger that conversations around civilians "could end up veering into discussions around conscription," the government had "an opportunity to broaden this out and consider how it could incorporate the whole of society in building resilience." Along with encouraging the British government to reconsider the size of the British Armed Forces, the committee also warned that the U.K.'s defense industry is unprepared for a sustained conflict due to decades of underinvestment. Furthermore, it warned that there was a clear lack of trust between the government and the defense industry, which acts as another significant barrier to increasing output and readiness. The committee called for clear, long-term commitments from the government to ensure that the defense sector will be able to meet the demands of modern warfare. Watch this episode of the "Health Ranger Report" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, interviews Alex Christoforou regarding the "clown show" that is the British Royal Navy. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com.

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British Army not large enough and not effective enough to sustain a major conflict

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