Britain’s army would run out of munitions just 10 days into a war, ex-defence minister tells Parliament

Defence minister James Heappey responded that the UK’s armed forces ‘remain fearsome’
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Britain’s army would run out of munitions ten days into a war, Parliament has been told.

Former armed forces minister John Spellar made the claim during questions about defence.

The Warley MP told the Commons: “The minister rightly speaks about the ability to sustain fighting, he knows that an exercise conducted with the Americans showed that the British Army would run out of munitions within ten days.”

Responding, armed forces minister James Heappey said: “In exercises that I have seen where the UK have operated alongside the US what happens again and again and again is that American senior commanders hold the UK force elements in the highest of regard.”

The UK armed forces “remain fearsome”, Mr Heappey added in response to the assertion that Britain is not able to fight a sustained war.

Conservative MP Richard Drax (South Dorset) told the Commons: “I would challenge the fact that we are ready to fight a sustained war with the armed forces that we have, and bearing in mind all the threats that we face that’s become very real.

“Would (the defence minister) now... stand at the dispatch box and say we need to spend a lot more money on defence?”

Mr Heappey, who is standing down at the general election, replied: “The reality is that our armed forces remain fearsome. Yes it is the job of this House and particularly (Mr Drax’s) committee to scrutinise as they have, our readiness.”

He added: “Our armed forces do need reinvestment in their ability to sustain themselves at a war-fighting level, that’s no scandal, that is the consequence of a peace divided that allowed successive Governments to rightly disinvest in the resilience that kept our cold war force credible, but as the secretary of state so rightly said in his speech the other week, we’re now in a pre-war era and so it’s the responsibility of this Government and those who follow to reinvest in that necessary war-fighting capability.”

A string of senior Tory MPs and party grandees, including former Prime Minister Sir John Major, have urged Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to increase defence spending, some say to three per cent of GDP, in the face of the threat posed by Vladimir Putin and other hostile states.

Asked ahead of the Budget if defence spending should be the Government’s priority, rather than tax cuts, Sir John said: ‘That would be my choice. We face a real difficulty, both with defence and some public services.

“Usually when defence spending increases, it is because a threat is evident. There is a threat that is evident.”

In the Commons on Monday, Conservative former defence minister Mark Francois raised the issue of delays to recruiting for the UK’s armed forces.

He said: “The Defence Secretary himself called our recruitment system ‘ludicrous’. He told the Times earlier this month, I quote, ‘that the Amazon generation which is used to getting things instantly were not prepared to wait a year to join the army’.”

Mr Heappey replied: “As a consequence of all that is going on in the world and the geopolitical uncertainty that requires us to use our armed forces so extensively, in recent months we’ve enjoyed record expressions of interest in joining His Majesty’s armed forces. Obviously what we need to do is ensure that from that moment of expressing interest to starting training is as short as possible.”

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