The British Armed Forces are similar in structure to the American ones, but London is clearly unable to provide the army with adequate funding.
As the newspaper “The National Interest” writes, the military budget of Britain is very modest, although in terms of the volume of the economy, the country is in fifth place in the world. An analysis by the UK National Audit Office found that the $251 billion allocated to equip the army from 2019 to 2029 would simply not be enough to meet all military requests. This will entail a defense crisis.
In particular, the British navy may lose the ability to detect and destroy mines by 2030, since the budget does not include funds to modernize the corresponding equipment. The Air Force may be left without reconnaissance aircraft, since the E-3 Centry aircraft will be decommissioned by the end of next year, 9 months before the delivery of the replacement.
Ironically, the UK Department of Defense has no idea what the army needs, writes NI. As a result, the authorities are unable to estimate the necessary costs. The situation is so critical that the army does not even have the funds to dispose of nuclear reactors from 20 already decommissioned submarines.
Meanwhile, Brexit had a negative impact on the pound exchange rate, because the purchase of foreign weapons is now more expensive for Britain.