A report claiming two Royal Artillery regiments were left completely disarmed due to Downing Street’s decision to send the guns to Ukraine comes as British hawks step up their public relations campaign to convince taxpayers to submit to a surge in military spending.
The British Army has no more heavy guns left after having given them all to Ukraine, according to a recent report.
All of the UK’s 30 serviceable AS-90 self-propelled artillery guns have been sent to the Zelensky regime, The Sun is reporting.
“The decision to give them away has stripped two Royal Artillery regiments, based on Salisbury Plain, Wilts, of all their working weapons,” wrote the outlet, which added that an artillery source told them: “If gunners don’t have guns we can’t fight, we can’t train.”
The news comes amid a high-profile push by British war hawks to convince the public to cough up for newer and fancier toys for the military.
Claiming that British fighting capabilities have been “hollowed out by spending cuts,” the former head of the UK’s Joint Forces Command, retired General Richard Barrons, wrote in a recent op-ed that “years of cuts to ammunition production mean that, for some types of key weapons, the army would run out in a busy afternoon.”
Opining that the UK’s military is now “barely tier two” – a designation which would place it among the ranks of Germany and Italy, rather than “tier one” militaries like those of the US, China, Russia, or France – Barrons insisted the Brits will have to fork over an additional £3 billion to return to the upper echelon.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also recently echoed the view the British military has been left “hollowed out and underfunded” in light of his government’s continuing campaign to pump Ukraine full of deadly weapons. “As the world gets more dangerous, defense should get a growing proportion of spend,” he reportedly urged.
The possibility that the UK would likely be left flat-footed in a military engagement has been greeted with increasing concern among British military members, but across the Atlantic, news that UK military supplies have been gutted has provoked a decidedly different response.
“The UK Is Giving Ukraine Lots of Artillery — Now The British Army Can Get Newer And Better Guns,” cheered Forbes in one particularly shameless headline.
By “donating to Ukraine more and more of its artillery,” the British Army is “effectively forcing the government in London finally to spend real money on new guns and launchers,” the author crowed.
But there’s little indication that view aligns with those of working-class Britons, who have endured one of the toughest years in recent memory. With half a million Brits on strike Wednesday amid the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations, issues like better pay and an end to draconian public spending cuts tended to be at the top of the list of demands – but ‘new heavy weapons’ was nowhere to be found.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The granting in kind of AS90 will provide an important increase in Ukraine's capabilities and will help to accelerate Ukrainian success on the battlefield.
'Concurrently, the Army is continuing to meet its operational AS90 commitment in Estonia.'
The spokesperson said the Army is now focused on accelerating the 'Mobile Fires Platform project which is designed to deliver an enduring replacement this decade'.
There are concerns the decision could leave Britain in a vulnerable position, particularly given the guns linked to the Mobile Fires Platform aren't due to arrive until 2029.
In a letter obtained by the Daily Mail last week, General Sir Patrick Sanders spelled out the realities for Britain of donating so much of its military equipment.
The UK is sending 14 Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks, along with recovery vehicles, vast quantities of spare parts, hundreds of armoured vehicles, the AS90 artillery heavy guns, high-velocity rockets and drones.
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