The Ministry of Defence has revealed that a significant portion of Britain's Armed Forces are not medically fit for combat deployment.
One-fifth of Britain's Armed Forces are not fully medically fit to fight a war, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted. In total, 13,522 personnel across the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force are deemed to be 'medically not deployable'. There are also 14,350 people across the various branches of the Armed Forces who are 'medically limited deployable'.
This compares to 99,560 who are 'medically fully deployable', according to figures given by defence minister Al Carns in response to a written parliamentary question. Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, described the situation as 'alarming' and said it highlighted the 'absurdly small size of the British Army'. Mark Francois, the Tory shadow Armed Forces minister who submitted the parliamentary question, put fresh pressure on Labour to put a firm date on when it plans to meet its target to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on the military. Those deemed to be medically not deployable are those medically fit for duty but with major employment limitations. They are not fit to deploy on operations but may be deployable on UK-based exercises and should be able to work effectively for at least 32.5 hours per week. In the case of the Army, 16,335 soldiers are either medically not deployable or medically limited deployable, out of a total of 71,340 personnel, amounting to 23 per cent of all troops. Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, described the situation as 'alarming' and said it highlighted the 'absurdly small size of the British Army'. The figures were given by defence minister Al Carns in response to a written parliamentary question. Those deemed to be medically limited deployable have minor employment limitations - such as a medical condition or functional limitation - that prevents the meeting of all deployability requirement
ARMED FORCES MEDICAL FITNESS BRITAIN DEFENSE POLITICS
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