British Army has been so degraded by cuts the UK is no longer capable of fighting a war on its own, says senior officer

A senior military officer says the British Army has been so degraded by defence cuts that it no longer has enough troops and equipment to be able to fight wars on its own.

Major General Charles Collins, Assistant Chief of the General Staff, said the Government needed to accept the ‘humiliation’ that the Army’s days of independently fighting wars such as in the Falklands were over and that Britain’s future role was merely to ‘complement’ other nations’ troops.

Gen Collins, who is widely tipped to be a future head of the Army, said: ‘While once we assumed that others would fill the gaps in our order of battle, we must now have the strategic humility to prepare to complement another nation’s force.’

He also said that if Britain were fighting the Ukraine war alone, it would have already run out of ammunition and equipment, and questioned whether the UK could still claim to be one of the leading members of Nato.

The officer made the outspoken comments in a wide-ranging article on the future of the Army for the British Army Review magazine, which was cleared for publication by both Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, and General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff.

Gen Collins is a highly experienced infantry commander who has served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.