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| British General Admits That It Can't Deploy a Division Abroad, and they’re not the only ones |
| 2026-04-13 |
| [HotAir] How pathetic is the British Army? How about this: it cannot actually deploy a heavy (armored) division to Europe if required.
More than a decade after a review noted the country's inability to meet its basic NATO obligation to defend its allies, the country still cannot deploy a fighting force. Britain has always focused on having a powerful Navy and a relatively small, highly professional Army. But currently it has neither. Its navy is a shadow of what it once was, with only 15 surface combatants, most of which are in dry dock. It currently has no deployable destroyers, although they are rushing to get one that has been in dry dock for nearly a decade back to sea. The destroyer it deployed to the Mediterranean had to come back to port after its water filtration system broke down. The Spanish Prime Minister, a socialist, who just legalized somewhere between half a million and a million illegal immigrants and put them on the fast track to citizenship, wants a European Army. What a joke. Spain spends 1.3% of its GDP on "defense," and apparently, it includes some green energy spending as "defense." Almost 1 in 5 dollars of "defense" spending goes to "climate resilience." Yep. Good luck fighting with that. The idea that Spain could contribute substantial military power to anything is a joke. Its yearly military budget is less than the US spent on bombing Iran. The US has more troops based in Europe than the entire Spanish military. France? Macron talks big, struts around in sunglasses looking cool, but can't deliver. Before the Assemblée Nationale even began debating the update to the military planning law on Wednesday, April 8, which includes an additional €36 billion for the armed forces by 2030, the budgetary equation was already proving challenging. On Thursday, before the defense committee, Carine Camby, president of the first chamber of the Court of Auditors, warned MPs that the financial sustainability would be complicated. "The additional effort for defense will require significant [budgetary] trade-offs, unless new resources are found," Camby said, explaining the opinion issued by the High Council of Public Finances on this bill on Wednesday, following a referral by the government. Poland, from what I can tell, has a real military. Germany's air force is a shadow of its former self, and most European surface combatants are frigates, which are not fit for purpose in fighting a real war. NATO without the United States could, I suppose, fight a medium-sized country with modest military power and win decisively, but it couldn't muster the transport capabilities to do so. It certainly couldn't be considered a global power. The UK likely still has superb personnel. Its military traditions have likely endured despite political leaders' failure to support them. No doubt American troops would be proud to serve with them in a conflict. But it would be US aircraft that would transport them to the fight. |
| Posted by:NoMoreBS |
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| Posted by: Chantry 2026-04-13 11:26 |
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