"We don’t have armed forces fit for the modern world": Royal Navy, Army and RAF analysed amid "difficult" job
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The armed forces are facing supreme challenges and it will be a “difficult” job to bring them into the modern age, a defence expert has said.
Matthew Savill MBE, Director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), analysed the problems currently facing the military. Speaking at a defence select committee meeting on November 12, he said a lot of evaluation is needed to upgrade military capabilities and use them in a different way.
Fred Thomas, Labour MP for Plymouth Moor View, asked the research director what new aspects the MoD need to respond to, given the armed forces the country has at its disposal. “The starting point is that we don’t have the armed forces that we think we need that are fit for the modern world,” Mr Savill said.
“That is a constant refrain, which is how do you both prepare for all eventualities, on a budget which is planned years in advance, and in the face of adversaries trying to anticipate what you’re doing and rendering your capabilities obsolete before you even bring them in, or to nurture them.
“Defence’s job is really difficult. It’s trying to hit a literal moving target. The current refrain is there is something about the current challenge being a genuine question of whether the vast majority of capabilities of have have been essentially overtaken by the rate of technological change.
“My view is no they haven’t, and that’s the same for my team, but my goodness they need an awful lot of upgrading and a lot of thinking about how we use them differently. That challenge is being thrown at us. We need to change a lot of things simultaneously.”
Mr Savill proceeded to evaluate the state of the Army, RAF, and Royal Navy. He believes the biggest problems are currently being faced by the Army. In reference to the Royal Navy, he believes it still has a long way to go to reach its goal of operating a Hybrid Navy - where modern warships sail alongside un-crewed vessels and drones.
“The Army is being caught at the most vulnerable point at its existing programme of transformation,” he added. “The RAF has got lots of the new aircraft it needs and wants, it just doesn’t have enough of them. The Navy knows where it wants to go with new fleets, and has been talking about augmenting with un-crewed vessels for years. It’s just moving from a slow start and shipbuilding is not easy or quick. The Army has been caught just as it's trying to change, trying to untangle a completely botched capability programme. That is a particular problem for them.”
The research director also referenced the UK’s defence relationship with the USA. The Royal Navy and US Navy consistently work together on various operations, such as HMS Prince of Wales operating alongside USS George Washington during Exercise Talisman Sabre earlier this year. The British and American relationship is waning however, with the UK reportedly not sharing intelligence with them due to American ships striking suspected drug-smuggling vessels.
Mr Savill said: “Bluntly, in terms of high politics and strategy, we’re operating in an environment where all of the assumptions about the benefits of our relationship with the US have been put into question. We shouldn’t throw the baby out of the bathwater, but that is not as reliable a relationship as we have previously seen. That genuinely matters to both defence policy and strategy. You have to make decisions about designing the armed forces differently.”