The hysteria about the state of Britain’s armed forces has spread from the army to the Royal Air Force, at last in the U.K. tabloids. “MILITARY CRISIS Britain only has FOUR fighter jets ready to deploy if nuke-armed Putin strikes—RAF is not prepared, warns ex-commander” read the headline in The Sun yesterday. The ex-commander is retired Air Marshal Greg Bagwell who told the outlet that Britain’s Armed Forces do not have the capabilities to defend against a “significant” attack by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “forces” if he were to strike tomorrow. Bagwell warned that two decades of relative peace in the post-Cold War era has meant Britain—like much of European NATO—has “become complacent” to the alleged Russian threat and not invested in the military. “And this lack of foresight means the U.K.’s ‘second class’ armed forces only have the capacity to respond to a ‘limited’ Russian attack involving a few aircraft and missiles,” says The Sun.
Even then, Bagwell, who served in the RAF for 36 years, said Britain’s limited number of aircraft, defense systems and weapons would quickly become “stretched.” But if “an unhinged Putin decided to launch a major attack on Britain like we’ve seen in Ukraine, the former combat pilot warned the RAF would become overwhelmed.”
