Britain can no longer defend itself

When the Berlin Wall fell, the British Army had 152,800 soldiers. Tony Blair’s government cut this to 110,000; David Cameron’s reduced it to 87,000. Plans to let that number fall to 82,000 were accelerated by the former defence secretary Ben Wallace. It’s generally accepted that by next year numbers will have dropped to 72,500. That’s a generous estimate: there are credible reports the army could soon number just 67,800.

This week the British Army is playing a leading part in Operation Steadfast Defender, the largest Nato exercise in peacetime history. Yet it is smaller than it has been at any point since the 1790s. More importantly, it’s far too small and too badly equipped to deliver everything we’re promised it can do. The saga of the navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is telling. Last week it was due to lead a Nato exercise off the Norwegian coast, signalling our military’s power and strength. But its propeller shaft broke. We’re not alone in this: Germany’s army is beset with similar problems. A military exercise intended to showcase the West’s readiness for war may well end up demonstrating the opposite.

Operation Steadfast Defender is designed to test whether Nato can achieve what it was set up to do. ‘We are preparing for a conflict with Russia and terrorist groups,’ says Rob Bauer, a Dutch admiral who chairs the allied military chiefs. ‘If they attack us, we must be ready.’ To this end Britain is supplying 20,000 troops to the exercise, Poland 15,000, Germany 10,000 and the Netherlands 5,000. All 31 Nato members are taking part.

Apart from anything else, it’s a test of whether troops can be moved in time. The results are far from certain. Ben Hodges, a former commander of US forces in Europe, argues there aren’t enough trains to move people fast enough in the event of an emergency.