UK to bolster army stockpiles after latest defence review

AFP | London                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Britain announced yesterday it plans to spend an extra £2.5 billion ($3.3 bn) on army munitions and create a new “global response force”, vowing to learn lessons from the war in Ukraine.

The country’s Ministry of Defence said the additional investment in stockpiles would cover the coming decade, and be paired with other spending and reforms intended to bolster “warfighting resilience” and deterrence.

It comes after a £5 billion funding boost to the defence budget announced in March, following a years-long review of strategic foreign and defence policy. That identified the threat posed by Russia to European security as the most pressing short-to medium-term priority but also called China an “epoch-defining challenge”.

Unveiling the “refresh” -- detailed in a 92-page Defence Command Paper -- outgoing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said it was focused on areas needing “urgent prioritisation” in an increasingly “contested and volatile world”.

“As Russia has so effectively proven, there is no point having parade ground armies, mass ranks of men and machines if they cannot be integrated as a single full spectrum force sustained in the field under all demands of modern warfighting,” he told lawmakers.

He added that requires “professional forces, well-equipped and rapidly adaptable, supported by critical enablers and vast stockpiles of munitions”. “That is why in this document, you won’t find shiny new... comms-led policy driving unsustainable force designs, or any major new platforms for military enthusiasts to put up on their charts on a bedroom wall.”