British Army Cut to Smallest Size Since Napoleon

The British Army is to be cut to its smallest size since the Napoleon wars by 2020 under money-saving plans announced July 5. It will shrink from 102,000 regular soldiers to 82,000, with whole battalions being axed or merged. This will make the Army half the size it was 30 years ago when Britain fought the Falklands War.

The Army will no longer be able to conduct two large-scale operations at a time, as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Former head of the Army Gen. Lord Dannatt warned on bbc Radio 4 that “the Army will be 20 percent smaller by 2012 and so by definition it will be able to do less.”

The Defense Ministry plans to make up for the shortfall by expanding the Territorial Army, bringing the total number of regulars and reserves up to 120,000. Dannatt warned that the plan to rely on reserves “is a good idea in theory,” but is “risky.”

“Predicting the future is very difficult,” he said. “Strategic shocks happen. We often don’t get it right. So let’s hope the next decade is rather more peaceful than the last decade—but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Britain’s Defense Secretary Philip Hammond admitted that the cuts had left the Army’s morale in a “fragile” condition. “People never like change … change brings uncertainty,” he said.

These cuts come on top of the massive cuts that left Britain without any aircraft carriers and saw whole fleets of aircraft scrapped.

Dr. Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a conservative think tank, warned: “Secretary Hammond’s announcement fudged the reality that in order to maintain even this small contingent of combat-capable forces, the Army was drastically cutting back on combat support capabilities such as logistics and communications in the Regular Army, pushing these functions into the reserves or relying on private contractors.”

“What remains now is a small, if shiny spearhead attached to a slight and breakable shaft,” he said.

The whole Army is now about the same size as the force guarding the Rhine in Germany during the Cold War Dr. Goure said.

“As recently as 2003, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Great Britain deployed nearly 50,000 combatants alongside U.S. forces,” he said. “Today, it would be lucky to field half that number.”

As the saying goes, “If you wish for peace, prepare for war.” Britain is simply wishing for peace. Britain’s current budget is unsustainable, but the cuts put the whole nation at risk. It is another step toward the end of Britain’s ability to project military power beyond its borders.

Britain’s economic woes and warped spending priorities are putting the nation at risk—gambling Britain’s future that the next decade will be peaceful.