Top general questions Britain's role in NATO
Top general questions Britain’s role in NATO as our Challenger tanks head for the frontlines in Ukraine
- General Sir Tim Radford said Britain is ‘just holding on’ to it’s influence in Nato
- It follows criticism from military chiefs that Britain’s army is too small
British Challenger 2 tanks were seen thundering along Ukrainian roads as Kyiv continued its push to drive out Russian troops.
In tub-thumping footage released by Volodymyr Zelensky’s army yesterday, the vehicles’ location was not revealed to avoid giving the enemy an advantage.
But the video of the four-man, 75-tonne tanks also showed helicopters flying past and smiling soldiers on duty.
Britain announced it was sending 14 Challenger 2s to Ukraine in January, in addition to Storm Shadow missiles in the fight to oust Russian invaders.
The film emerged as fresh fears were raised about Britain’s military capability, with a former chief of the defence staff warning the country was ‘not particularly good’ at being ready for war.
Britain announced it was sending 14 Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine in January to aid Kyiv’s fight to push back Russian troops
General Sir Nick Carter, who was head of Britain’s armed forces from June 2018 to November 2021, criticised deficits in military hardware and Army personnel cuts.
It followed comments by General Sir Tim Radford, the second-in-command of Nato’s military arm, who said Britain was ‘just holding on’ to its influence in the multi-national defence organisation because its Army was too small.
Speaking to the Commons defence committee on armed forces readiness yesterday, General Sir Nick criticised a lack of funding that meant Army personnel – set to be cut to 73,000 – had to be ‘traded off’ against other urgent costs.
‘I’d have preferred to have retained the Army at 82,000 (personnel),’ he said.
Asked whether supplying resources to Ukraine had exposed a deficiency in stocks, he told MPs that stockpiles were ‘dirty words’ as bureaucrats ‘never conceived that we would have a future like the future that played out over the past 18 months’.
General Sir Nick Carter (pictured) criticised a lack of funding that have seen Army headcounts cut
Vladimir Putin yesterday claimed Ukraine’s counteroffensive stood ‘no chance’ against Russia’s invasion
General Sir Tim, 60, who is retiring as Nato’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe next month, told The Daily Telegraph that defence cuts had undermined Britain’s leading role in the organisation.
‘I think we [the British Army] are too small. We do need to grow,’ he said.
‘We’ve got a position of influence right across Nato. I worry that if we don’t invest and we don’t build up our industrial base and we don’t lead as we should, we might lose that position.’
It came as Vladimir Putin yesterday claimed Ukraine’s counteroffensive stood ‘no chance’.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘The UK is a major leader across Nato, contributing to every Nato mission and underpinned by the largest defence budget in Europe.’
Boris: Give Kyiv fighter jets now
Boris Johnson (pictured) renewed his call to send fighter jets to Ukraine yesterday
Boris Johnson renewed his call to send fighter jets to Ukraine yesterday to ensure the country wins the war ‘as fast as possible’.
As political and business leaders gathered to discuss the war-torn country’s reconstruction, the former prime minister said Kyiv should be equipped with F-16 fighter jets.
In a video on Twitter, Mr Johnson called for a focus on the Ukrainian counter-offensive to ensure the country has ‘everything that they could possibly need’.
He added: ‘We’ve got to go back to that question urgently of giving them the F-16s, the planes that they need to command the airspace and take out those Russian attack helicopters.’
His comments came as Volodymyr Zelensky, who is pushing for his country to join Nato and the EU, opened the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference in London via video link yesterday.
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