If a war with Russia starts now, the British army will not be able to continue fighting for more than two months. Because there is not enough resources to continue the war. This is what Deputy Chief of Defense Staff Lieutenant General Sir Rob Magowan said.
Taking part in a hearing of the Commons Defense Committee of the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament, this army officer said, ''We’ve been very clear that the amount of money we’re spending on munitions at the moment ... which is significant ... does not meet, in all areas, the threats that we face.''
''We’ve been clear that we need to spend more money, above the programme of record, on what we call integrated air missile defence', he added.
At the same hearing, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said he had discussed with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt to allocate more money to the defense sector in the recent budget. But even that was of no use. They failed to ensure increase in allocation.
Shapps also said that if a conflict breaks out, the military alliance NATO is their only hope. Because the UK will fight alongside NATO allies who could collectively outgun Russia, rather than by the UK alone.
Mr Shapps said, ''For people watching, and hearing that the UK isn’t ready for war exclusively with Russia, it’s important to understand that because we are in Nato and [mutual defence agreement] Article 5 exists, we would never be in that situation.''
The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than two years. Since the start of the Russian military campaign on February 24, 2022, NATO has been indirectly supporting the ally with money and military logistics.
But even with billions of dollars of weapons and military equipment, Ukraine is not able to fight against Russia. In such a situation, NATO officials consider Russia more of a threat.
In such a situation, Western politicians and military officials are increasingly sounding war. They say that NATO will fight directly against Russia. They have already started preparations for that purpose.
"It's not like we're at peace," Dutch Navy admiral Rob Boer, chairman of NATO's military committee, said earlier this year. In such a situation, the alliance has started preparing for a conflict against Russia. Civilians of coalition member countries should do the same.
In addition, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Russia may attack NATO within the next five years. In an interview given to the German media Dar Spiegel, he also said, "Our intelligence officers think that such an attack can happen in five to eight years."
The German defense minister also said, "We are hearing threats from the Kremlin almost every day." So we have to keep in mind that (Russian President) Vladimir Putin can one day attack any NATO member country.
