Britain's Shrinking Military - From Cold War Colossus to Cash-Strapped Shadow

Though not wrong in the now vs then assessment do not assume that the Soviets are still the enemy.
Looking at the Russian military today it is also a shadow of its former self and not the threat it was.
So NATO today should not fear the Russian conventional military if the Ukrainians dare not too.

That said what the current British military can be expected to do is essentially some basic deployments and home guard duty.
The aircraft carriers in my view are a folly with the money better spent on more basic kit and manpower to do the more basic jobs
of home and European land, air and seaway defence.

Also this need to keep developing our own equipment is also misguided.
There is sufficient off the shelf products available that would avoid wasting billions on development which would be better invested in wages and other t&cs of employment leading to better recruitment and retention.

Do not worry chaps! We Yanks have a track record of bailing you Brits and French out of a bit of a mess I should think?❤️

Under Labour we not need any armed forces, Labour will make friends with China, Iran and Russia…..more funds for benefits and migrants.

It’s simple. You either have middle class welfare or you have a military. It’s one or the other.

Excellent video. Your opening statement about politicians is spot on. There seems to be some politicians that are warmongers, with delusion that we (the UK) are still some sort of global superpower. They need to wake up and also watch your content about WWII. Any sane person would not want to enter a war of that scale ever again. The level of death and destruction was immense.
Perhaps the politicians assume the USA and/or NATO would come to our aid and support? I wouldn’t bank on that either. For the US, it would depend on who is in power. And for NATO countries (mostly EU) again it would depend on their political stance and finances.
The UK is playing a dangerous game imo. We’d be quickly disabled by Russia and our little island starved of resources - because we don’t produce anything any more!
Just to add, the stats in this video are laughable aren’t they? We are joke!

The size of the royal air force is equal to that of a fully loaded American aircraft carrier. It’s astonishing to see how much the British armed forces has shrunk.

I'm told as far as the Navy goes, Canada is in an even worse situation?



The largest amount of coastline to defend in the world..


It had the world's third-largest navy just after World War II:yet today its battle fleet includes just 12 frigates and four subs, plus various small patrol craft?

It wants 12 new, under ice conventional subs, but given the dire financial straits it finds itself in, that's unlikely to become a reality??

It’s useless having an army big enough to invite trouble but not large enough to do anything about it.//Field Marshal Henry Wilson

Yeah, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to switch to an ideology in the 80s that believes private business has all the answers and should dictate government policy. You know, while also letting the richest companies and people in the country offshore their money into tax, or when they do reinvest in the country, they reinvest in speculation and assets which do nothing but contribute to house Price inflation and a poverty crisis. 40 years of following Margaret Thatcher has come in this mess. And yet half of the people who want this stuff rectified see her as some glorious last stand of British. Power quote there is no such thing as a society, just the individuals and the market” remember Maggie?

Spending needs to be doubled.

Basically, stop holding on to americas skirt or you’ll be destroyed.

Are the carriers out of dock, though?

Non infrastructure, NHS et al

Britain has no Empire any more so what's the point?

Why is a corrup, poor, persistently incompetent country with the GDP of Italy and a population around four times smaller then the EU managing to to bully the entire West to the point of us having people that assume that we 'can't possibly militarily oppose them'?

Greetings from the future according to more recent reports the UK now has an army smaller than 72000. I do wonder what even is the point of even keeping this defunct institution around.

UK Govt "As long as daddy Richard Branson is happy thats all that matters,"

So, the question has to be asked: If the UK were to significantly increase its military, and I sincerely hope it does, how would this be paid for? The UK was once part of the EU, a free trade organisation spanning half a billion people with no border tarriffs to pay, but now we are an isolated little trading nation, with no free access to European markets. The UK economy has significantly shrunk due to Brexit and that will not change. Thanks Brexiteers, thanks.

Could this be the reason why France has a superlative military?

The globalists have taken over Britain.

Britain has terrible political parties and terrible leaders.

You can hear the frustatiom even in Mark's voice when he describes how the UK's fighting forces have been slashed by the dunderheads in Parliament.
£7 million a day is being wasted on housing illegal immigrants in 4 star hotels. Further public money is given to dodgy countries as aid packages which the people who need it never receive benefit. Swiss bank accounts held by African dictators are awash with this cash.
Too little too late now. If a ground war starts we had better start learning Russian who will make the SS look like nancy boys.

You have to remember when the Royal Navy was at its height the Government was not spending most of the countries GNP on things like a National Health service or benefits and wages were kept low . If the U.K. was run like it was the Victorian age or that period from 1903 to 1918 when we had a huge Navy which took most of the defence expenditure before and after ww1 then we would have billions more to spend on defence. But people have decided that defence was to take a back room role to pay for the modern welfare state.

Never, in a month, of Sundays

We're an occupied continent now with an abundance of rubber dinghies in Britain.

Also the war in Ukraine has shown that tanks are easily destroyed by mines , guided missiles and drones that cost nothing and can be guided by teenager wimps on sofas 50 miles away. Tanks can't even SEE the drones. If they could see them .. they can't stop them. STOP buying tanks ... they were good in the LAST war but now things have moved on.

Yes ... BUT .... russia ALSO MASSIVELY reduced the size of its army. Putin promised a modernized smaller professional army .... but the reality is a smaller not very good army. (still disproportionately big for peaceful purposes). The Tories have always been the main defence cutters since before the Falklands war ... yet they pretend to be patriotic ! ?

Good fences make good neighbors. Power vacuums are bad. It is the duty of all nations to keep a modern, professional military in a state of readiness, in order to deter the ambitions of evil men.

The problem behind all of this is because the UK is always notoriously skint. Generation after generation of poor politics and short-termism have combined to cause a steady decline. The foolishness of Brexit was the last straw, destroying what little we still had and underscoring yet again what a poor team player the UK can be. Having said all that, remember that Britain became a powerhouse of industry within months after the outbreak of WWII - once they'd woken up and seen the writing on the wall. When the Berlin wall came down in October 1989, everybody and his dog got dewey eyed at the prospect of the "peace dividend" and began slashing costs. To be fair, no-one anywhere realised what Putin would become. The current unreliability of the US (with MAGA falling for Putin's propaganda) appears to have woken up the Europeans, however, and is frightening them into making some changes. The UK will not end up fighting Russia on its own.

Comparing things to 1939 is very simplistic. Then, Britain had an Empire to protect. It doesnt' today. The defence cuts in the postCold War era is natural. However, we're in a new COld War so things have to change.

It's not just one NATO country's Govt cutting back it's the Majority! When the Berlin wall came down they all thought they could now begin to divert Military budgets to more Popular vote garnering social programs. They have all neglected their Militaries, now they are feeling the possible pressure!

Excellent Video.........one of Marks best

Its not only your country Mark i'm Spaniard and years of decadence and financial shortages had ruined our Army and Navy,now a mere shadow of our past force..and all Europe the same,the sad and dark
reality being Europe is NOT ready for a conventional war against Russia,much less a nuclear one of course.

Pray for Russia

Send everything to an ex Soviet Republic called Ukraine. Which is a made up country by yours truly Stalin.

If a nation disarms itself, as so many countries did after the end of the Cold War, then you are taking a risk that the military forces being disbanded are not going to be needed in the future. However, as we know, life if unpredictable, and there are no guarantees when it comes to international affairs. The Swiss attitude is that a well armed Switzerland and universal military service are the ultimate guarantees of Swiss security and independence.

We have clueless politicians

you can have colourful diversity OR security.

Having served in both the regular Army and RAF, and TA, i regularly despair at the state of our military.
This is down to 30+yrs of political stupidity 😡

The question is how you and where you spend the budget. Dr. Felton has expertly raised the concerns that the US has over its main European ally’s armed forces demise!
The UK has simply stripped its armed forces to the bone and is certainly not capable of defending itself in a major European conflict.

I wonder if the number of Pen pushers at the MOD in Whitehall has shrunk at a comparable rate ?

This is a traversty

The UK has already lost the war with the invasionmigation Trojan hose. Twilight zone

They should scrap the Type 26 of eight and just buy more Type 31 like 15 each 10 new destroyer 5 Tide Class 8 new mine hunters 10 Astute Class 20 Offshore Patrol 10 Hoovercraft 30 inshore Patrol 50 CB90 for Royal Marines.

Sorry to UK forces. It could be undone if there's the political will ,and if "things" happened today in Europe, ...well the 200 tanks gone in a few months hard combat looks quite possible.

But they gave Ukraine billions 🤷

Doesn’t also help that people are dejected with the state of the nation and don’t want to fight for it. I don’t blame them. Mass immigration, crime, corruption, recession and stagnating government doesn’t help. Though despite this spending must be increased. The military is a disgrace of its former self.

the uk is far to socialist now, to ever afford a powerful military again, the public doesn't have the maturity to re allocate the funds

It's insane any British politician would like to see Britain go to war.

Army and Navy is more important than just defence it's an employer for hundreds of thousands of working class men and women