The Army: too many brass hats, not enough squaddies
General Sir Nicholas Carter (right) (PA Images)
Can the British Army remain fit for purpose if its numbers are reduced to a little over 60,000, as recently reported in the news? There are 73,510 fully-trained soldiers in the army and there is clear briefing to pro-Government newspapers that this number will be reduced by 10,000, in order to release money to pay for technical fixes to face whatever future fighting the Army may face — from cyber threats to drones.
It is an astonishing reduction in the size of the British Army, and seems to have received little comment — despite the House of Commons having former Army officers in high political posts. The Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace himself and the very high-profile chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat both served in the army.
Labour’s shadow defence secretary, John Healey, has expressed concern, but it is a long time since Labour had leaders who took a serious interest in defence. In 1997, Labour came into power with a Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who to put it mildly, loved using military force, but also with a generation of ministers outraged at the failure to intervene to stop the butchery and open genocidal attacks of the Serb strongman, Slobodan Milosevic at Sarajevo, and the slaughter of 8,000 European men, children and one woman at Srebrenica.
There was also a “Never Again” feeling 25 years ago after G7 leaders and the UN refused to intervene to stop the genocide in Rwanda.
The failure in Iraq and then the long years when David Cameron pointlessly left British soldiers in Afghanistan as Taliban target practice, has tuned down political and public interest in what we want from a British army.
But, on any count, 60,000 soldiers seems far too low. In his new book, The Changing of the Guard the former army officer, Simon Akan, points out that in 1947 the UK had 170,000 soldiers stationed in North Germany. Now the British Army strength will be a little over half the size of the French Army, smaller even than the number of Portuguese soldiers in uniform, and far lower than the 88,000 UK prison population.
The government hopes that the new US administration will embrace the British armed forces as their most reliable allies, in contrast to soft-on-China flaky chow mein-scoffing European politicians and military.
Certainly, the Army is keeping up its senior officer ranks — mocked by Akan as “polo-playing buffers”, driving tax-free Porsches on their trips to Verbier and Val d’Isere to hone up their winter warfare skiing skills.
There are 312 officers of one-star rank or higher — a brigadier or general for every 200 soldiers in the new model army. Most are actually extremely smart, highly trained, and go on more courses to improve their military leadership skills than other professions.
The UK’s go-it-alone approach after Brexit may be what voters in 2016 and 2019 opted for, but throughout history British military strategy, from Waterloo to Normandy landings, has needed and sought allies. A British army of 60,000 is not a serious European, let alone a global player.
Paradoxically, now the UK has left the EU, might it be possible for Britain to join, on its own account, with other European military powers in developing drones on the model of the Airbus? Or the same weapons, armoured vehicles, most naval vessels, helicopters and even warplanes to achieve economies of scale in research and production that exist in the United States?
A go-it-alone, isolated UK military and defence industry will never have the resources to match the ambitions of 10 Downing Street for Britain to remain a global player in the next decades.
In the campaign for Brexit much was made of a phantom “European Army”, which does not and will not exist. Sending soldiers to kill or be killed will always remain a sovereign state decision.
But the UK should have no problem with increasing cooperation and moving towards a common approach to defence kit procurement and military cooperation with the rest of Europe.
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