Former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt believes the UK could not repeat its simultaneous operations in Iraq and Afghanistan alongside NATO allies as military personnel numbers continue to fall.
show that almost 7,000 people left the British armed forces during 2022, leaving the total number of those serving at 190,170.
“We would not be able today to do what we did in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008 when we had 10,000 soldiers in Iraq, 10,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, on rotation there was every six months,” he said. The falling numbers serving in the armed forces have come as the Government focuses on responding to what it believes are “the current challenges”.
“What’s more, satisfaction with service life has fallen to almost 40 per cent and retention rates are dropping, leading to more people leaving the Forces than joining.” In its latest review of the UK’s defence programme in the 2023 Integrated Review Refresh, the government admitted that “there are necessarily trade-offs in terms of priorities and force structure” due to the wide-ranging and expanding issues affecting global security and the re-emergence of Russia as a major threat following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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