Russia will CRUSH Britain if Putin Decides to Invade UK: Warns Britain's Ex Military Chief

RUSSIA would wipe the floor with Britain if it decided to invade because the UK’s military is not up to scratch – this is the view of the recently retired commander of Joint Forces Command.

General Sir Richard Barrons laid into the capability of the British military in a devastating 10 page document handed to the Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon.



The former military heavyweight highlighted Vladimir Putin as Britain’s most likely threat, claiming we “lucky” that the Russian leader does not appear intent of waging war at the moment.

The General’s scathing attack on the armed forces comes despite the Government’s decision to increase defence spending by nearly £5billion by 2020/21 and to meet Nato's target to spend 2% of GDP on defence for the rest of the decade.

He blasted: “Capability that is foundational to all major armed forces has been withered by design.

“There is a sense that modern conflict is ordained to be only as small and as short term as we want to afford - and that is absurd.

“The failure to come to terms with this will not matter at all if we are lucky in the way the world happens to turn out but it could matter a very great deal if even a few of the risks now at large conspire against the UK.”

Britain's military would not stand a chance against Putin's might, warns Sir Richard

He added: “Counter-terrorism is the limit of up-to-date plans and preparations to secure our airspace, waters and territory…there is no top-to-bottom command and control mechanism, preparation or training in place for the UK armed forces (to defend home territory)…let alone to do so with Nato.”

On Britain's ability to defend itself from aerial attack, he said: “UK air defence now consists of the (working) Type 45 (destroyers), enough ground-based air defence to protect roughly Whitehall only, and RAF fast jets.

Putin is seen as even more dangerous after annexing Crimea

“Neither the UK homeland nor a deployed force - let alone both concurrently - could be protected from a concerted Russian air effort.”

Sir Richard warned that the military’s lack of full scale war experience in recent times could prove to be a disadvantage on the battlefield in future.

He said: “The current Army has grown used to operating from safe bases in the middle of its operating area, against opponents who do not manoeuvre at scale, have no protected mobility, no air defence, no substantial artillery, no electronic warfare capability, nor - especially - an air force or recourse to conventional ballistic or cruise missiles.”

Sir Richard also raised concerns that Britain's armed forces are dominated by small numbers of expensive equipment such as new aircraft carriers which "we cannot afford to use fully, damage or lose" and bemoaned a lack of manpower across the military.

- UK Express