I thought Russia has shown the world that conventional warfare against nuclear powers doesn’t really happen other than for a laugh? There’s no winning that doesn’t envolve the bombs going off in the end, so why play the game up until that point?
We’ve never been a throw troops and ammo at the problem kind of military. We provide plenty of useful assets in wars to our allies, just not in that way!
We are also allied with a country that has an addiction to military spending.
I think we are good!
callsignhotdog on
Frankly I’d be all in favour of maintaining a more capable standing armed forces, especially in the current climate, but I spent 2 hours trying to get hold of a GP yesterday so I think we may have more pressing domestic concerns than our stockpile of artillery shells.
Kind-County9767 on
How and why does a defence minister from 2000 know anything about strategic ammunition reserves today exactly?
Ajax_Trees_Again on
That’s grand we can do what we did in the war and turn our industry base into part of the war effort.
We still have one, right?
Successful_Shape_829 on
What a stupid comment. Nobody wants war except the English establishment who have started wars for centuries in the name of power and greed.
Similar-Midnight7730 on
Why do we come out and say this ? Isn’t it really bad to tell the world we would run out of ammo in 10 days if we went to war ?
Euphoric_Flower_9521 on
hah not if we would run out of people earlier, haha!
tree_boom on
Yon fellow is referring to an exercise held with the Americans in which (according to an American General called Ben Hodges) we supposedly ran out of ammunition. I have no clue whether that is true or not, but I would point out that the UK has given over 300,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine since the war began and is now increasing its manufacturing capability to a fairly ridiculous target rate of 800,000 rounds of artillery ammunition _per year_ (based on a [targeted 8-fold increase](https://des.mod.uk/des-places-new-order-to-increase-155mm-shells-stockpile-for-british-army/) on the [original contract’s quota](https://www.forces.net/news/ps24bn-munitions-deal-secure-thousands-uk-jobs-over-15-years) of 100,000 rounds), with the idea that we’ll hit that figure sometime in 2025. Obviously that’s not stocks held…but Russia **can’t** fight us whilst they’re fighting Ukraine and they’re not going to be in any shape to fight us for at least a few years after ending the war in Ukraine, so by the time any war actually kicked off we’d have produced at least a couple of million rounds. There are many problems with the UK’s Armed Forces that need solving, but this specific one is a functionally solved problem.
Ok_Satisfaction_6680 on
Just another important part of the country let down by the people whose job it is to look after it, while also having no deterrent to pocketing the money themselves instead
OhMy-Really on
Question: Who makes our ammunition, or rather where is it sourced from?
AgentMcG on
Will this matter less if current recruiting via Capita continues as this will mean there are so few soldiers, sailors, and air force that suddenly each one has a near lifetime supply of rounds?
Does it also factor in Britain having such a small navy that the main advantage of being an island is no longer exploitable?
I imagine people’s idea of what our armed forces are like is quite far from the truth if you believe reports in the press
Not_Mushroom_ on
We’d only need 9 days to see them off anyway! Who do you think you are kidding Mr. H…….
Prior_Worldliness287 on
Does this notbdeornd on the scale of invasion. And the UK military strategy to respond.
shaun2312 on
How do they know how much of the munitions we’d be using daily?
Nulibru on
In ten days we’ll have won, lost, or the cans of instant sunshine will be flying at which point you might as well chuck rocks at the godless commie bastards.
Limedistemper on
Isn’t this kind of information meant to be secret. Imagine if Hitler heard on our national news that we’d run out of bullets in a couple of weeks!
AoifeNet on
Is someone in the process of finalising a book deal?
cjc1983 on
Shells aren’t that important in a NATO hot war…NATO doctrine rules the air so 50 highly targeted smart munitions is likely worth 1000+ untargeted shells.
beerharvester on
If Trump wins this election then NATO is vulnerable against another Russian invasion, especially with NK, Iran and China adding silent support.
Quick-Oil-5259 on
And the Royal Navy has no active supply ships, relying upon friends and allies to provide replenishment of stores – including ammunition.
So our strategy is to win a war in ten days or fewer.
neverarriving on
Reminds me of the story that occasionally gets trotted out about how if WW3 had kicked off, the RAF would have run out of missiles within 72 hours – in reality we would have had access to NATO stocks, supplies from the US & also it failed to factor in that we’d have been at risk of running out of aircraft by that point, even if the buckets of sunshine weren’t in play.
Dr_Pandaa on
The only country on earth capable of realistically invading the UK is the USA so I’m not sure what we are even worried about.
InMyLiverpoolHome on
Whos going to invade us overnight, France? The only person who we would realistically be at war with anytime soon would be Russia, and they’d have to spend years getting through mainland Europe to even begin thinking about invading us.
I think we will be OK
hydromiesaurus on
There is one rule which will save any need for more ammo, never fight a land war in asia.
Wattsit on
Ex Minister desperately tries to increase defence spending so his defence stocks and dividends will rise so he can afford insurance on his brand new range rover.
Unless Britain joins a war in aggression or in defence of a non NATO state, Britain is not isolated. NATO would not run out of munitions in ten days.
But they’ll continue to try and push the implicit image of commies landing on the beaches of dover and Britain collapsing like a wet flannel. Gets the plebs nice and hungry for war spending.
26 Comments
Who are we even fighting?
I thought Russia has shown the world that conventional warfare against nuclear powers doesn’t really happen other than for a laugh? There’s no winning that doesn’t envolve the bombs going off in the end, so why play the game up until that point?
We’ve never been a throw troops and ammo at the problem kind of military. We provide plenty of useful assets in wars to our allies, just not in that way!
We are also allied with a country that has an addiction to military spending.
I think we are good!
Frankly I’d be all in favour of maintaining a more capable standing armed forces, especially in the current climate, but I spent 2 hours trying to get hold of a GP yesterday so I think we may have more pressing domestic concerns than our stockpile of artillery shells.
How and why does a defence minister from 2000 know anything about strategic ammunition reserves today exactly?
That’s grand we can do what we did in the war and turn our industry base into part of the war effort.
We still have one, right?
What a stupid comment. Nobody wants war except the English establishment who have started wars for centuries in the name of power and greed.
Why do we come out and say this ? Isn’t it really bad to tell the world we would run out of ammo in 10 days if we went to war ?
hah not if we would run out of people earlier, haha!
Yon fellow is referring to an exercise held with the Americans in which (according to an American General called Ben Hodges) we supposedly ran out of ammunition. I have no clue whether that is true or not, but I would point out that the UK has given over 300,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine since the war began and is now increasing its manufacturing capability to a fairly ridiculous target rate of 800,000 rounds of artillery ammunition _per year_ (based on a [targeted 8-fold increase](https://des.mod.uk/des-places-new-order-to-increase-155mm-shells-stockpile-for-british-army/) on the [original contract’s quota](https://www.forces.net/news/ps24bn-munitions-deal-secure-thousands-uk-jobs-over-15-years) of 100,000 rounds), with the idea that we’ll hit that figure sometime in 2025. Obviously that’s not stocks held…but Russia **can’t** fight us whilst they’re fighting Ukraine and they’re not going to be in any shape to fight us for at least a few years after ending the war in Ukraine, so by the time any war actually kicked off we’d have produced at least a couple of million rounds. There are many problems with the UK’s Armed Forces that need solving, but this specific one is a functionally solved problem.
Just another important part of the country let down by the people whose job it is to look after it, while also having no deterrent to pocketing the money themselves instead
Question: Who makes our ammunition, or rather where is it sourced from?
Will this matter less if current recruiting via Capita continues as this will mean there are so few soldiers, sailors, and air force that suddenly each one has a near lifetime supply of rounds?
Does it also factor in Britain having such a small navy that the main advantage of being an island is no longer exploitable?
I imagine people’s idea of what our armed forces are like is quite far from the truth if you believe reports in the press
We’d only need 9 days to see them off anyway! Who do you think you are kidding Mr. H…….
Does this notbdeornd on the scale of invasion. And the UK military strategy to respond.
How do they know how much of the munitions we’d be using daily?
In ten days we’ll have won, lost, or the cans of instant sunshine will be flying at which point you might as well chuck rocks at the godless commie bastards.
Isn’t this kind of information meant to be secret. Imagine if Hitler heard on our national news that we’d run out of bullets in a couple of weeks!
Is someone in the process of finalising a book deal?
Shells aren’t that important in a NATO hot war…NATO doctrine rules the air so 50 highly targeted smart munitions is likely worth 1000+ untargeted shells.
If Trump wins this election then NATO is vulnerable against another Russian invasion, especially with NK, Iran and China adding silent support.
And the Royal Navy has no active supply ships, relying upon friends and allies to provide replenishment of stores – including ammunition.
This country is being run into the ground.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-has-zero-active-naval-supply-ships-for-first-time/#:~:text=For%20the%20first%20time%20ever,in%202009%20to%20none%20today.
So our strategy is to win a war in ten days or fewer.
Reminds me of the story that occasionally gets trotted out about how if WW3 had kicked off, the RAF would have run out of missiles within 72 hours – in reality we would have had access to NATO stocks, supplies from the US & also it failed to factor in that we’d have been at risk of running out of aircraft by that point, even if the buckets of sunshine weren’t in play.
The only country on earth capable of realistically invading the UK is the USA so I’m not sure what we are even worried about.
Whos going to invade us overnight, France? The only person who we would realistically be at war with anytime soon would be Russia, and they’d have to spend years getting through mainland Europe to even begin thinking about invading us.
I think we will be OK
There is one rule which will save any need for more ammo, never fight a land war in asia.
Ex Minister desperately tries to increase defence spending so his defence stocks and dividends will rise so he can afford insurance on his brand new range rover.
Unless Britain joins a war in aggression or in defence of a non NATO state, Britain is not isolated. NATO would not run out of munitions in ten days.
But they’ll continue to try and push the implicit image of commies landing on the beaches of dover and Britain collapsing like a wet flannel. Gets the plebs nice and hungry for war spending.