Is the UK ready for war? The cost of the nation’s defence crisis

Dr Jack Watling, senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, said that Britain’s 70,000-strong army had given Ukraine most of its howitzer guns. This left the army with just 14 Archer 155mm wheeled self-propelled howitzers. A single division of 20,000 to 25,000 troops should be supported by 72. The UK’s commitment to Nato means it should have three times that. “If we went to war we wouldn’t have any artillery and, more importantly, we haven’t invested in the production capacity to provide the munitions they need, so those 14 would run out of ammunition rather quickly,” Watling said.