NATO 'fear UK drained to take over leadership of rapid reaction front'
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The UK military could be "too drained" to assume command of the alliance's rapid response force, according to NATO military leaders.
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British soldiers take part in an exercise as part of NATO’s deployment in Poland and the Baltic nations. (AFP)
NATO military leaders believe that the United Kingdom's armed forces will be unable to assume command of the alliance's rapid response force this year due to a lack of military resources, caused primarily by the country's assistance to Ukraine, according to British media, citing sources in the UK Defense Ministry.
Germany will hand over command of NATO's rapid reaction force to the United Kingdom in late 2023. However, the alliance has asked Berlin to continue leading the bloc's force for another year because London is unable to provide the required 5,000 soldiers, according to the newspaper.
"There are serious problems with ammunition shortages and another kit which is partly due to underspending – but also because of the amount of ammo and other ordnance we are supplying to Ukraine. Our forces are also stretched because of the extent to which they are training Ukrainian forces," UK media quoted one of the sources as saying.
According to the news outlet, the United Kingdom is now in its most vulnerable position since World War II, because the British army is the smallest it has been in four centuries, and the navy is less than half what it was during the 1982 Falklands War.
The chairman of the UK Parliament's Defense Select Committee, Tobias Ellwood, told a different British media outlet in late January that the UK army was "in a dire state" despite two decades of multi-billion dollar investments.
The UK's Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, also confirmed then that the UK army had "fallen behind its peer group" and needed investments. Despite this fact, Ellwood stated that the UK, already involved in the Ukraine conflict, needed to "face Russia directly rather than leaving Ukraine to do all the work."
#UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has reportedly been told by a senior #US general that the #British army was not a top-level fighting force. pic.twitter.com/SeH6OMjBuV
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) February 3, 2023
In the midst of the war in Ukraine, the United Kingdom is among the Western countries actively supplying Ukraine with various types of weapon systems and training Ukrainian military personnel.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on January 15 that 14 Challenger 2 tanks would be sent to Kiev. The UK Defense Ministry later announced that Ukrainian troops had begun to learn how to operate British tanks.
