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Spectator
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
How will the army's new Gurkhas fight without any guns?
The British Army's newest formation, the King's Gurkha Artillery (KGA), has unveiled the cap badge it will wear. This is a huge moment of symbolism for any army unit: the army is a federation of battalions and regiments which attract and inspire fierce loyalty, and it is at that level that British soldiers seek their real collective identity. 117 pages (seriously) of the Army Dress Regulations specify how cap badges are worn. In this case, however, the new badge – the crossed Gurkha khukhuri and a field gun representing the Royal Artillery – is concealing at least as much as it represents. I am absolutely in favour of raising more Gurkha units. The Nepalese warriors have been first-class soldiers in British service for 210 years, and, while most of the British Army has fallen consistently short in terms of recruitment over the past years, in 2023 the Brigade of Gurkhas recruited 204 candidates from 20,000 applicants. The commanding officer of the King's Gurkha Artillery, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Fletcher, said all the right things, that he and his soldiers are 'incredibly proud and honoured that His Majesty The King has approved the regimental badge' and that they 'look forward to an exciting future'. It seems wholly positive: the army's full-time trade-trained strength on 1 January 2025 stood at 71,151, its smallest since the 1770s. As Senator Sam Nunn of the Senate Armed Forces Committee once said, 'at some point numbers do count'. We need more soldiers. The truth is that the KGA is, at the moment, a characteristic piece of Ministry of Defence (MoD) legerdemain. It will not be combat-ready for several years, and it is an artillery formation without any guns. In April, defence minister Al Carns announced 'the formation of the 400-strong King's Gurkha Artillery'. But that number of 400 – a welcome enough boost, although by comparison Russia loses more than that every day in Ukraine – will only be at full strength and readiness after four years of recruitment and training. We are talking about a unit of the British Army of 2029, not now. Even the best trained gunners in the world will do us little good without guns. For nearly 30 years, a mainstay of the Royal Artillery was the AS-90 self-propelled howitzer, of which a total of 179 were procured. At the beginning of 2023, 30 were donated to Ukraine, but further transfers in 2024 and this year took that to 68, which, in addition to those already phased out, means that the British Army no longer operates the AS-90. The only conventional artillery now in British service (that is, setting aside rockets and missiles) is the Swedish-made Archer Artillerisystem 08. Like the AS-90, it has a 155 mm calibre, but with a longer range and a higher rate of fire. The problem is that the MoD only bought 14 Archers, as an 'interim replacement' for what was at the time the loss of 32 AS-90s, not the whole fleet. They are currently deployed by 19 Regiment Royal Artillery in the UK-led battlegroup in Estonia, part of Nato's enhanced forward presence to deter Russian military action. We are reminded again and again that Archer is an interim capability. The Royal Artillery is waiting for the RCH-155, a self-propelled gun based on the Boxer infantry fighting vehicle hull. Designed by Krauss-Maffei Wegman (now KNDS Deutschland), the RCH-155 will be built in the UK and in Germany. As of May, however, the MoD said that it was 'currently in the assessment phase' and 'it is not possible to provide a total figure [to be procured] at present'. Ministers hope it will enter service 'this decade', which will mean 2029 at the absolute earliest and refer to initial operating capability. Realistically, the RCH-155 will not reach full operational capability until 2032 or 2033, yet it was previously anticipated that it would replace Archer by 2030. In short, the KGA will not be an operational unit until 2029, and when it is, the Royal Artillery may still have little more in terms of close support than 14 Archers due to be phased out, and perhaps a small number of newly delivered RCH-155s. This is not increasing the army's capability; it is barely maintaining it. It certainly will not deliver what the Strategic Defence Review called'a tenfold increase in lethality'. This encapsulates the alternative reality the MoD currently seems to inhabit. Defence spending will rise to 2.5 per cent of GDP in 2027, most of which will be swallowed up by existing shortfalls. Ministers have pledged to reach the new Nato target of 5 per cent by 2035, a timescale long enough to be meaningless. The British Army is too small, understrength, poorly equipped and operating a stance of defence by IOU. Our allies know that, and our enemies know that. Ministers must know that too. The King's Gurkha Artillery will be a useful addition to the army's strength – but that is five years away, and yet the MoD frames it as a fait accompli. Five years may be more than we have.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UK to boost explosives production, reduce reliance on US arms, Times reports
The United Kingdom will significantly ramp up domestic production of military-grade explosives to reduce its reliance on U.S. and French imports, the Times reported on April 20. The effort is part of a wider trend among European and other allies to become less dependent on U.S.-sourced weaponry after President Donald Trump took office. Shipping containers will be deployed across the country to produce RDX explosives, which are a key ingredient in NATO-standard 155 mm artillery shells. These rounds are used in British Army systems like the AS-90 and the Archer self-propelled howitzers and have been supplied to Ukrainian forces. BAE Systems, the U.K.'s largest defense contractor, also plans to construct three new production sites to increase resilience against potential attacks, according to the Times. BAE's new facility in Glascoed, South Wales, set to open this summer, will deliver a 16-fold increase in 155 mm shell production compared to pre-Russia-Ukraine war levels. The Times, which was briefed on current production volumes, reported that officials have withheld the exact number for national security reasons. U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey called the expansion "an important step in learning the lessons from Ukraine, boosting our industrial resilience and making defense an engine for growth.' BAE, which currently imports RDX from the U.S. and France, aims to make its munitions "Itar-free" — meaning exempt from the U.S.'s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (Itar), which can restrict the sale and export of weapons containing U.S. components. The company's innovative approach will use smaller, dispersed facilities capable of producing 100 metric tons of explosives annually. The concern over U.S. reliability is not limited to the UK. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a new defense plan on April 19, pledging around $22.4 billion in military spending in response to Trump's expansionist rhetoric. "In this crisis, we have to prepare for America's threats to our very sovereignty," Carney said, as reported by Politico on April 19. "They want our land, our resources, they want our water, they want our country." Carney's plan emphasizes Arctic security, increased spending on military infrastructure, and investments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Trump has called into question the U.S.'s commitment to NATO's collective defense principle, signaled reduced interest in Europe's security, and even publicly floated plans to annex Greenland from Denmark and make Canada the 51st U.S. state. Read also: Europe's overall Ukraine aid outpaces US by $26 billion, report says We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
