UK’s ammunition is so depleted it would only last two months in war with Putin

(Picture: Shutterstock)

The UK does not have enough equipment to fight Russia longer than a couple of months in a ‘full on shooting war’, a defence chief conceded.

Lt Gen Sir Rob Macgowan, deputy chief of defence staff, was grilled by a committee of MPs yesterday after warnings underfunding has left the military vulnerable.

Tory MP Mark Francois pressed him: ‘We couldn’t fight Putin for more than a couple of months in a full-on shooting war as we don’t have the ammunition and the reserves of equipment to do it. That’s true, isn’t it?’

Mr Macgowan answered simply ‘Yes’.

But defence minister Grant Shapps took pains to point out that this did not been the UK was unprepared, as there would never be a situation where the UK was fighting Russia alone.

‘For people watching, and hearing that the UK isn’t ready for war exclusively with Russia, it’s important to understand that because we are in Nato and (mutual defence agreement) Article 5 exists, we would never be in that situation,’ he said.

Mr Francois said that the point still stood that the UK should do more to ‘increase our actual war fighting power’, to which Mr Macgowan said a review was underway and an outline in place, although the information was classified.

Two months may even be an optimistic idea of how long the UK could hold out.

Labour MP John Spellar told the Commons last week that ‘an exercise conducted with the Americans showed that the British Army would run out of munitions within 10 days’.

In response, defence minister James Heappey said: ‘In exercises that I have seen where the UK have operated alongside the US what happens again and again and again is that American senior commanders hold the UK force elements in the highest of regard.’

Former minister Mark Francois told MPs that another problem was recruitment of potential new soldiers taking too long.

‘The defence secretary himself called our recruitment system “ludicrous”‘, he said.

‘He told the Times earlier this month, I quote, that “the Amazon generation which is used to getting things instantly were not prepared to wait a year to join the army”. He’s absolutely right.’

Mr Heappey replied: ‘In recent months we’ve enjoyed record expressions of interest in joining His Majesty’s armed forces. Obviously what we need to do is ensure that from that moment of expressing interest to starting training is as short as possible.’

During the defence committee yesterday, Jeremy Quin MP pressed the prime minister on levels of spending on defence.

‘At the moment, Russia is outgunning Ukraine 5 to 1 in terms of expenditure of shells,’ he said.

‘Russia is producing munitions in excess of what the US and Europe are doing – 40% of Russian expenditure is going on the military.’

Rishi Sunak replied that he had prioritised the nuclear deterrent but acknowledged ‘munitions is a particular issue and you’re right to highlight Russian production’.

The Government is committed to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product, but the Prime Minister has declined to say when that would happen.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told MPs he had lobbied for more cash to be allocated in the Spring Budget announcemnt on governent spending, but failed to secure an increase.

Lieutenant General Sir Rob Magowan said he would have to manage the ‘operational risk’ that came with not having the resources he would like.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.