The United Kingdom should modernize its armed forces as they are currently not ready for a possible military conflict with Russia, a fresh report of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said on Wednesday
LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th November, 2019) The United Kingdom should modernize its armed forces as they are currently not ready for a possible military conflict with Russia, a fresh report of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said on Wednesday.According to the think tank, some 80 percent of NATO's firepower is air delivered, which will make it difficult for the alliance to destroy Russian air defense units in the early stages of a possible military conflict as field artillery is more suitable for such purposes.
"Given that this firepower does not exist within the ground forces, it may be concluded that at present Britain lacks a credible or competitive warfighting capability in a conflict in Eastern Europe against Russia. The rejuvenation and modernisation of Britain's ground-based fires is consequently an urgent and critical priority," the report, called "The Future of Fires. Maximising the UK's Tactical and Operational Firepower," said.
Citing the 2015 National Security Strategy, the report stressed that there was a small possibility of Russian aggression against the NATO forces in Eastern Europe.
"The UK currently possesses a critical shortage of artillery, and the army lacks the transportation capacity to deploy and sustain a credible divisional fires group. If conventional deterrence is to remain a key component of the UK's National Security Strategy, then the modernisation of its fires capabilities should be a top priority," the report said.
The RUSI believes that London must either retain a large number of anti-armor munitions, or revise its commitments under the 2008 Oslo Treaty and provide its forces with cluster munitions.
"It should be noted that the moral objections to the use of cluster munitions can be mitigated. It is possible to significantly reduce the dud-rate of munitions compared with those employed when the Oslo Treaty was signed. Furthermore the moral objections to their use become somewhat moot in a high intensity conflict in Eastern Europe, where Russian and US forces will employ cluster munitions liberally. Without appropriate munitions, British forces will simply be outranged, outgunned and thereby defeated in detail by Russian formations," the report noted.
Authors of the report expressed doubts that the UK armed forces would undergo necessary modernization, given the "current and foreseeable budgetary parameters."
