If war broke out tomorrow British soldiers could run out of bullets in just 10 days because Labour have failed to replace the weapons and ammunition sent to help Ukraine, a leading military expert has claimed. Renowned historian Antony Beevor gave the dire evaluation of the British Army during an appearance on Sky News programme Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sunday.
Asked by Sir Trevor what would happen if the Americans decided to withdraw from supporting Ukraine in the war against Vladimir Putin‘s Russia, Mr Beevor said the European’s might be able to fill the gap “with difficulty” but it depended on whether President Donald Trump was still prepared to sell arms to NATO partners. He added the Europeans were not “quite in the position to catch up rapidly” should they have to take over from the US in the war, but in a worrying judgement, Mr Beevor said Britain was “in the worst position of all” if it came down to an all-out conflict with Putin. “I mean we have no ammunition, or virtually no ammunition… the British Army couldn’t last more than 10 days before running out of ammunition in a conflict,” he said.
Seemingly surprised by the bleakness of the answer, Sir Trevor responded “seriously?”, to which Mr Beevor confirmed: “Yes, seriously.”
“The first duty of the government is to provide the defence of the country, this is their very first priority, but I mean what do we see… even in this latest Budget money can be found from somewhere to pour into the bottomless pit of welfare dependency, but there isn’t still the money yet to replace the ammunition and weapons which have been given to Ukraine.”
As of November this year, the UK has committed around £21.8 billion in support for Ukraine, with around £13 billion in military support under both the Labour and Conservative governments.
The rest of the spend is made up from non-military support (including bilateral assistance and fiscal guarantees) and export finance (via UK Export Finance for reconstruction and defence projects).
Arms and armour sent to Ukraine includes 85,000 military drones, a new Anglo-Danish rapidly-developed bespoke air defence system called Gravehawk, thousands of Javelin and Brimstone missiles (both in production and delivered) and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of artillery ammunition.
Arms and armour sent to Ukraine includes 85,000 military drones, a new Anglo-Danish rapidly-developed bespoke air defence system called Gravehawk, thousands of Javelin and Brimstone missiles (both in production and delivered) and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of artillery ammunition.
In September, Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons since July “the UK has delivered to Ukraine nearly five million rounds of munitions, around 60,000 artillery shells, rockets and missiles, 2,500 uncrewed platforms, 30 vehicles and engineering equipment, and 200 electronic warfare and air defence systems.”
The government says it is actively issuing contracts to replace stocks sent to Ukraine to aid the conflict, but speaking as the conflict began in 2022, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the former Chief of Defence Staff, warned replacing the amount of equipment sent to aid Kyiv could take “five to 10 years”.
The MOD defended their efforts to rearm the nation following years of underinvestment and supplying Ukraine.
An MoD spokesperson said: “We are in a new era of threat, which demands a new era for UK Defence, and our landmark Strategic Defence Review sets a vision to make Britain safer, secure at home and strong abroad.
“The SDR sets out how we’re moving to warfighting readiness, with investment in air and missile defence, munitions factories and an increase in the size of the Army.
“This is backed by the largest sustained increase in Defence spending since the end of the Cold War – hitting 2.6% of GDP by 2027 – and an extra £5bn for defence this year alone ensuring no return to the hollowed out and underfunded Armed Forces of the past.”
