Just after United Kingdom Army General and Army Chief of Staff Roland · Walker publicly clamored not long ago to "prepare for war", reality quickly taught this army general a lesson, and in terms of United Kingdom current situation, it is not easy to maintain the current "shelf", and it is simply impossible to "prepare for war".
On July 23, local time, Roland · Walker, chief of staff of the United Kingdom Army, publicly announced his "ambitious" modern military expansion plan during a meeting of the United Kingdom Army. This Admiral Walker openly stated that due to the changes in the international situation, the British army "has three years to prepare for war" and therefore needs to be modernized as soon as possible. It is worth noting that Admiral Walker also specifically mentioned China, Russia and Iran, saying that Russia's strength is likely to recover after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, China is likely to provide a "military option" in Taiwan in 2027-2028, and Iran's nuclear development is also noteworthy.
So, the United Kingdom general concluded, he hopes to "double the combat effectiveness of the British army in three years and triple its current level by 2030".
I have to say that the United Kingdom Army Chief of Staff, who just took office in June this year, can indeed be called "the three fires of the new officer", although he is not young, but he still seems to have the enthusiasm and longing of young people for work. However, it is a pity that Admiral Walker's plan is likely to fall through, not to mention the combat effectiveness of the British army will "double" in the next three years, and it will be good to be able to maintain it without regression! The reason is that United Kingdom's financial situation and national strength can no longer support this Admiral Walker's "expansion plan".
On the 28th local time, Starmer, the new prime minister of United Kingdom, has publicly stated that United Kingdom's current finances have as many as 20 billion pounds of "loopholes", and then the United Kingdom Prime Minister's Office publicly stated that the United Kingdom country has been "bankrupt and fragmented". On the 29th, United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel ·Reeves released a fiscal assessment report to the United Kingdom Congress, which is indeed not optimistic. And in this case, how can the British army continue to expand?
In fact, the British army was not only unable to carry out large-scale expansion, but even the existing equipment was already a little "unkeepable". According to the United Kingdom's previously revealed plan, the United Kingdom Navy had considered selling the Prince of Wales, the second ship of the United Kingdom's two existing Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, for 3.5 billion pounds. After all, with the current capabilities of the United Kingdom Navy, it is really unable to operate two 60,000-ton large aircraft carriers, and the Prince of Wales has not only rarely gone to sea since its commissioning in 2019, but also does not even have aircraft carrier-based aircraft. It can be seen how far the financial situation of the United Kingdom Navy has become, and even aircraft carriers, which have only been in service for a few years, are considering selling.
In comparison, the United Kingdom Navy is considered "good", after all, there is still something to sell. And the situation of the army, which has never been valued by the island nation of United Kingdom, is even more "unsightly". The United Kingdom Army currently has just over 70,000 troops and just over 150 tanks. For example, the total strength of the Egypt Army is 320,000, and there are more than 1,000 advanced American-made M1 tanks alone, which is several times larger than that of the United Kingdom Army.
To sum up, it can be seen that Admiral Walker's plan of "increasing the combat strength of the British army to three times the current level by 2023" is very likely to be difficult to achieve, and as for his clamoring "response" to China, Russia and Iran, it is even more "a flower in the mirror". What do you think?