Head of British Army warns UK must be ready for war in three years
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Britain’s army must be ready in three years to fight a war against an “axis of upheaval” of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the force’s new chief has warned.
While stressing that conflict was not inevitable, General Sir Roly Walker predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin will emerge from his invasion of Ukraine “very, very dangerous” and “wanting retribution” against countries like the UK that supported the Ukrainian armed forces, whether Moscow wins or loses.
“The point here is when you think they [the Russians] are down, they will come roaring back to get their vengeance,” he told a briefing with journalists on the sidelines of an annual army conference.
Speaking unusually bluntly for a serving officer, General Walker also cautioned about the potential of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a desire by Iran to develop nuclear weapons and the threat posed by North Korea.
He described how these countries are creating a relationship between each other – sharing weapons and technologies – and how this challenge could converge by 2027 to 2028.
“That is why you get to this point by… 2027-2028 this convergence may have reached some sort of mutual singularity and your ability to deal with them in isolation – a specific crisis that can be managed by the rules based system – I think is significantly diminished,” he said.
“A problem in one area is likely to trigger a sympathetic detonation in another and therefore it is a global problem looked at from different perspectives around the world.”
Given the threats, General Walker said there was an “urgent need” for the British Army to rebuild its ability to deter future wars with credible fighting power.
The commander also warned the army would lose if they stick with old ideas about warfare instead of adapting to embrace new technologies that are transforming the battlefield.
“I am saying we are not on an inexorable path to war but what we do have is an absolute urgency to restore credible hard power in order to underwrite deterrence,” he said.
He described it as a “not the war plan”, which he set out in a speech, also on Tuesday, at the army’s Land Warfare Conference in London.
