It is no longer one of the most powerful armies in the world... Why did Washington change its assessment of the British army?

LONDON

- A state of alert in the British military circles, after the spread of secret statements by US military leaders expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of weakness that the British army has reached.

According to media reports, a senior US army commander told British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and a number of army generals, in an exclusive interview, that Washington does not view the British army as one of the most powerful armies in the world.

And the comments of a former military commander in the British army made matters worse, when he said that his country's army was unable to protect the United Kingdom in the event of war.

Lord Alan West, commander of the British Navy between 2002 and 2006, detonated a heavy-caliber bomb when he admitted - before the House of Lords - that the army had become "very weak" and suffered from a great shortage of equipment and fighters.

This assessment - in which the leaders of the US army agree with their British counterparts, and which came out from secret into the open - opened a wide debate about the reasons for the decline in the combat capabilities of the British army, which for years was among the strongest in the world.

British military maneuver last year (Reuters)

How big is the defense budget of the British army?

According to the British Treasury, the defense budget, for the past year, amounted to 71.4 billion pounds sterling, which is the fifth highest government sector in terms of the allocated budget, and receives 5.9% of the total budget, and constitutes about 2.1% of the gross domestic product.

The past year witnessed a significant increase in the volume of military spending by 18% compared to previous years, as the government has been pursuing a policy of reducing military spending since 2009.

Britain has the highest military spending in Europe, and it has the second defense budget within NATO after the United States.

Why is the British army described as weak?

For two reasons, the first of which is the policy of reducing the military spending budget, since 2009, and by following the path of military spending since this year, it will appear that the percentage of military spending in the gross domestic product has declined, as it moved from 2.6% to 1.8% by 2018, which means about a decade of the policy of gradual reduction in spending. on the army.

After 2019, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the largest increase in the defense budget, amounting to 30 billion pounds. However, this increase was not enough to compensate for years of reducing the defense budget.

As for the second reason, it is the strategy of reducing the number of soldiers, as the army annually abandons 8 thousand soldiers from its ranks without compensating them, and it was scheduled to abandon 10 thousand soldiers this year, bringing the number of British army soldiers to 72 thousand soldiers only, which is half the number of soldiers French army numbering 142 thousand soldiers.

Why did Britain decide to cut spending and the number of soldiers?

For 3 main reasons, the first is the policy of reducing public spending, which began since the conservatives came to power in 2010, and the defense budget was seen as exaggerated, and the decision was to give priority to other sectors at the expense of defense.

As for the second factor, it is the military assessment that the country is living in the last decade a "period of peace" and after the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, which depleted the army's budget, the decision was made to reduce military spending.

The third factor is caused by the loss of the British army, the factor of temptation for young people, as the army annually records the departure of 8 thousand of its members, without compensating them. Despite the army launching campaigns to recruit soldiers, they did not find much demand, in addition to the British army moving towards the idea of ​​​​the "mechanized army", where He is now working on making tens of thousands of robotic soldiers and owning 30,000 drones by 2030 in order to reduce dependence on the human element on the battlefield.

What is the reason for American resentment of the British army?

It was no coincidence that the dangerous American assessment of the status of the British army was leaked, because the American ally is angry at Britain's reneging on a promise it made during the era of former Prime Minister Liz Terrace to raise military spending to 3% of the gross domestic product, increasing its size to 100 billion pounds. By 2030.

Upon the arrival of the current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to power, he refused to abide by what Terrace committed to, and said that he would maintain the proportion of military spending within the limits of 2.1% of the gross domestic product, a decision that may have angered the American military leaders, as Washington has always demanded from its allies, especially members NATO to increase their military spending to 3%.

Does Britain plan to fix this situation?

The British Ministry of Defense says that it has a plan to invest in the army at a value of 24 billion pounds over the next four years, which is the largest investment in the army since the end of the Cold War. Soldiers in the ranks of the army.