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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The United Kingdom faces the issue of losing up to a third of its regular troops, according to The Times. The newspaper reported that the British Army has not met its annual recruitment target for several years and could see a further reduction in the next 10 years if the current projection continues.
The outlet indicated that the number of British Army personnel could be reduced by a third in another decade, going from 75,000 troops to just 52,000. Meanwhile, official statistics from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, current as of October 1, 2023, reported a total of 75,980 regular soldiers in the army.
“In a decade’s time, based on present trends, the army will be 52,000 strong, small enough to fit inside Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium,” the newspaper highlights.
According to the article, the United Kingdom’s land forces branch has registered a negative recruiting trend for a decade, failing to meet annual objectives every year. In September 2023, the outlet added, the total number of regular soldiers was reduced by more than 3,000.
A former senior military official, cited in the article, explained that the British Army cannot send even a 25,000-person mechanised division on overseas operations because it has not invested in various support elements, such as supply vehicles and radio-electronic warfare equipment.
“The problems facing all the services are major, deep and growing: personnel, infrastructure, training — and that’s before you get to equipment,” Francis Tusa, who writes the Defence Analysis newsletter, said.
Likewise, the biggest problems with personnel numbers are being experienced by the British Royal Navy and Marine Corps. Given the shortage of troops, the UK command plans to withdraw two ships from service and put several other amphibious landing ships in reserve to free up crews and deploy them on new Type 26 frigates, The Telegraph revealed.
The media also mentioned that personnel shortages constitute the main factor in the lack of preparation of British aircraft carriers to deploy in the Red Sea because of Operation Prosperity Guardian, launched by the US in the context of Houthi attacks to stop the passage of ships heading to Israel due to the war in Gaza.
Specifically, as The Telegraph points out, the support ship Fort Victoria, considered the most suitable for this level of operations, has not yet been deployed since, instead of a standard crew of 100 people, it is currently at a minimum.
It comes as the same newspaper warned that political dysfunction, coupled with ineffective inflation control from London, could lead to a crisis like the island country has not faced since the 1970s, and according to the newspaper, the decade started very badly for the UK due to the pandemic, energy crises, and conflicts in the Middle East, which affected the world economy and led Britain into recession.
“This toxic combination – stagflation – hit a country mired in political turmoil. Union strikes brought workplaces to a grinding halt. An irate public turned on an unusually fractious political system that delivered five governments and four prime ministers in ten years,” the article reads.
Thus, to date, highlights The Telegraph, these first three years of the current decade have been very similar to the beginning of the 1970s when, between 1973 and 1974, the UK recorded inflation of 9% and entered a recession for two years driven by fuel shortages.
The tremors of another similar crisis arose after it was announced that inflation rose month by month for the first time since February 2023 from 3.9% to 4%. Inflation has been a topic of concern in recent months, as several factors have raised fears, particularly lockouts, the conflict in Ukraine, and the resulting increase in energy prices that generate instability, in addition to the crisis in Yemen.
Yet, despite major issues in the military and economy, London insists on self-destructive policies in its failed attempt to project power across the world, even if it results in humiliating gaffs. Besides sanctions against Russia boomeranging, footage recently emerged showing HMS Chiddingfold reversing into HMS Bangor off the coast of Bahrain, causing significant damage and bringing to question how the British could deal with Houthi piracy and attacks in the Red Sea.
It is evident that the memory of the British Empire still lives strongly in London, but Britain no longer has the capabilities to project power as it could in the 19th century. In fact, the situation is so bad that Britain is expected by 2026 to have an army smaller than the US special operations forces alone. As decisionmakers London continues making mistakes, regular Britons are suffering.
why should any red blooded englishman, welshman, scot or ulsterman sign up to fight and die for a government in london that doesn’t give a damn about them, their heritage, their culture and traditions? just like in america the government in the uk is a government of the ruling class, by the ruling class and for the ruling class.
facts. no one should want to fight for psychopathic rich bich western globalists. ukrainians didn’t get the memo tho.
first step: don’t elect jewish minorities into office second step: don’t elect drug addicts into office third step: don’t elect anybody tied to the wef into office.
you forgot, don’t elect pedophiles into office
it’s already covered in the third step. if you are an elected pedo you are clearly elected and promoted by the wef. the wef adores pedophiles, a people after their own hearts.
i thought they voted about it.
and your belowed has eroded themselves down, de still exist,
more as parts has replaced with infected nationationalisme.
those islands certaily need reforms in thev vote system, but there has to be fx socialdemocrats all over instead of bimbos and daft from ulster and edinburg.
the altarnative can be you collapse and danmark buy it back at restart it in eu. they have good beer and whisky too.
i dum dum derp derp
i never wrote that
i writ dumb monkey jibbly
i only drink mulatto semen dane whiskey
the lower layer of the queen elizabeth’s beasts are not feeding well. britain is the main counselor of the usa empire, also with the kabals and zionist devils. you shouldn’t believe queen elizabeth, they are always bluffing and lying about everything.
i dont understand thepronlems. the earth is overpopulated grabbing for ressurses.
in things is sure and for the militaries too. a lot can and will be replaced with tech,
we replace too electric cars. soon they will have no drivers
oh jens, for a nordic autistic savant, you have such a perceptive intellect.
but you didn’t finish your forecast, riveting though it was.
soon they will have no passengers either.
jens is a nut jobs, even when jens think he speak something useful, he speak just bu11sh1t
this hard a comment from yourself. i can any parrot better then that within 2 days and send it in a zip file.
very optimistic. im just a ine of many simple small dot.
i sea many countris decline in numbers too. yhays not as empty at all.
my own country has about a much people as we had some 100 years ago. by that we a lot exentfarmning feeding many – and pollute sky, land and the sea.
so my vote and voice for handling the people reduction as a big plus too.
when i grow old i want a toilet with shower. it has to dry me and take clothe and shooes on and on. no more stripping for the nurse.
my country half arab today
please kill me i am populated w aids virus
my brother was going to join the british army it was his dream but he has since changed his mind as he became more informed about all the corruption and hypocrisy.
fine for him. bad for the army.
i join lgbt tranny senile army
i understand transgender–nothing else
army reject me cuz diarrhea from sodomy
the facts are the slimy, limey scumbags in whitehall are slaves, vassals, lapdogs and whores of uncle shmuel in washington, dc. even without the money, girl power and equipment, they must obey their pimps. the lives of an englishman, welshman, scotsman or irishman are worth less than a smelly, disgusting, nauseating pimple on king charlie’s inbred rump.
misleading article ignoring the fact that uk military function is being transfered to private military corporations (usual brit deception):
prevail partners — ukraine
group 4 securicor — afghanistan, iraq, egypt, mali, south sudan
aegis defense services — afghanistan, iraq, nigeria, colombia, drc, mozambique, sierra leone, somalia and car
pilgrims group — nigeria, afghanistan and irak
why not die for king and country. king and bankers own everything and need more. citizens will freeze or starve to death anyway to make way for immigrants. king very smart look at all he doing for you and he needs more tax money for his castle and servants.
there is not a lot of enthusiasm to sign up to fight russia which is not a threat to the uk at all.
a number of tik tok warrior deluded call of duty playing muppets did sign up and went to ukraine in the early days, then russia found out where they were barracked and put a few kalibr’s in the barracks they were in, and took a lot of them out, the numbers immediately started drying up.