UK army chief warns Britain must double its fighting power by 2027

Britain must be ready to fight a war by 2027 and double the fighting capability of its army within three years, the UK’s newly appointed chief of the general staff, General Sir Roly Walker, has warned.

Walker said the West faced an “axis of upheaval” involving growing military threats from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, whose increasing cooperation was making international crises harder to contain.

He pointed to US assessments that Chinese President Xi Jinping had instructed his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Russia’s continued military expansion following its invasion of Ukraine.

In a speech outlining his ambitions for the British Army, Walker said he wanted to double its fighting power within three years and triple it by the end of the decade, without additional resources. This would involve adopting technologies and battlefield techniques, particularly drones and artificial intelligence, developed during the war in Ukraine.

He warned that Russia could emerge from the conflict seeking retribution against countries that supported Kyiv, potentially posing a greater threat in the medium term.

Walker stressed that war was not inevitable but argued that Britain urgently needed to restore credible military strength to deter potential aggression.

via The Guardian