Britain cannot keep up with Russian military advances, head of Army to warn as he makes case for more funding

Britain is struggling to keep up with Russian military advances, the head of the Army will say on Monday as he makes the case for more funding.

Gen Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the General Staff, will say Vladimir Putin’s aggressive modernisation of Russian forces means the Kremlin already has battlefield abilities that the UK would find difficult to match, and that we risk falling further behind.

He will tell the Royal United Service Institute: “The time to address these threats is now – we cannot afford to sit back.”

Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, is currently involved in an ongoing Cabinet fight with the Treasury to avoid cuts to the Armed Forces. But the intervention from Sir Nick makes a strong case for  increasing military funding.  

It also echoes a recent warning to MPs from a senior former general that cuts had already left the Army 20 years out of date and unable to deal with Russia’s military.

Gen Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the General Staff, will say Vladimir Putin’s aggressive modernisation of Russian forces means the Kremlin already has battlefield abilities that the UK would find difficult to match
Gen Sir Nick Carter, Chief of the General Staff Credit: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

Sir Nick will underline the threat from Russian long-range missiles, but Army sources said generals are also worried about Russian dominance in areas including artillery, electronic warfare and cyber skills.  

Senior officers say 15 years of fighting low-tech insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, followed by MoD cost cutting, has forced the UK to neglect skills and equipment to counter hi-tech, capable armies.

At the same time, rivals including Russia have invested heavily in upgrading and modernising.  

Russian soldiers rehearse ahead of a forthcoming parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 5
Russian soldiers rehearse ahead of a forthcoming parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 5 Credit: MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP

Army leaders have emphasised Britain’s inability to defend against modern long-range Russian artillery, which has been used to devastating effect in Ukraine, or against precision missile strikes seen in Syria.

Russia’s electronic warfare skills, including allowing forces to jam or lock on to enemy signals, are also feared to have caught up with, or surpassed, those of the West.  

Yet generals fear a plan to modernise the British Army, which includes buying rapidly deployable armoured vehicles for new strike brigades, as well as updating ageing Challenger battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, could be delayed or cut to find savings.  

Money for research by defence scientists has also been dramatically cut.  Sir Nick will warn that as Russia has built an increasingly aggressive and expeditionary force, which has been showcased in the Kremlin’s support for Bashar al Assad in Syria and separatists in Eastern Ukraine, it already boasts  capabilities that the UK would struggle to match.

“Our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded if we don’t keep up with our adversaries,” he will say.

He will also warn that as well as its campaigns in Syria and Ukraine, Russia has used war games and exercises to simulate attacks across northern Europe, for example against Lithuania.

Britain must also look closely at how rivals are able to use unconventional campaigns of cyber warfare, disinformation, proxies and subversion to “exploit the seams between peace and war”.

Sir Nick will say: “State-based competition is now being employed in more novel and increasingly integrated ways and we must be ready to deal with them. The threats we face are not thousands of miles away but are now on  Europe’s doorstep – we have seen how cyber warfare can be both waged on the battlefield and to disrupt normal people’s lives – we in the UK are not immune from that.”  

Gen Sir Richard Barrons, who until 2016 led Joint Forces Command, told the Commons defence committee late last year that the Army lacked air defences, unmanned drones and cyber warfare capabilities.  He said it was no longer able to deal with modern battlefield threats, such as the Russian artillery and drones that had destroyed two Ukranian mechanised infantry battalions in the space of 15 minutes. 

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