State of the British armed forces

[Wizeman]

Just wondering if anyone else is worried about the state of our armed forces?

The world seems like its on a knife edge and from my analysis we are not ready for war.

You are mistaking size with weight. Our Navy now is in a far better shape...the same could be said about the front line fighting regiments....less but far better equipped and better trained.

thats because the public does not want to fund the military

Your mad if you think we have the same power as back in 1982. We don't. The navy managed to get 43 warships ,22 rfa ships plus 62 civilian to sea in less than a couple weeks. We did this while keeping other ships patrolling around the world, maintaining our international commitments.

Currently the royal navy could at a stretch using ships for other international commitments get 8 warships and 5 royal fleet auxiliary ships to sea. This only includes one air defence destroyer leaving the fleet vulnerable to anti ship or air attack. I doubt we would be able to get those ships ready in less than a week.The rest of the fleet could take upto a year to get out of maintenance and out to sea.

Thanks for your service 👏👏

Who's told you that? Yourself?

The UKs defence needs are not the same as other countries. What with being an island.

Now whether the UK has the capability, capacity, and competence to project power beyond the UK is another matter. But quite how "defensive" that is is another matter.

One of the realities of losing an Empire, is you don't really get to wave your military around anymore. I thought we learned that in 1956 ?

I agree with this but our enemies have maintained the sizes of there military while modernising. We have modernised but lack size and to be honest the kit we have is years behind now Ukraine has happened.

Which enemies, out of curiosity ?

Of course they would. The RAOC (as it was then) was on the front line in the Falklands.

Latest Polls on Public Support for Defence Spending (2025 Data)
Public opinion has shifted toward more support since the 1990s/2000s (linked to rising threat perceptions post-Ukraine and other conflicts), but remains split and conditional. Here's the key data:

• Electoral Calculus / Find Out Now Poll (20–21 October 2025, n=2,056 GB adults, weighted representative) — One of the most recent detailed surveys:
• 39% agree we should spend more on defence to fight military threats even if it means higher taxes (24% disagree; 23% neutral; 14% don't know). Net support is positive but modest.
• By party: Conservatives 63%, Reform UK 54%, Labour 41%.
• Only 29% agree if it means cutting spending on social security (strong caution here).
• 45% see some risk of military attack on Britain (only 11% "big risk"; 43% little/no risk).
• 32% think it's likely Britain will be in a war within 5 years.
• But other threats rank higher: global economy (82% some risk), climate change (67% some risk).
• NatCen British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey (autumn 2024 + spring 2025 follow-up, published June 2025) — Long-running, high-quality tracker:
• 40% support increased spending on military/defence.
• 20% want a reduction (implying ~40% prefer to keep it the same).
• Trend: Up +23 points since 1996, +12 points since 2006; stable since 2016. Heightened threat perceptions (e.g., 90% see Russia as a serious threat to world peace) are driving the rise.
• By party: Reform UK 67%, Conservatives 61% favour increase; Greens 42% favour reduction; Labour split (28% increase vs. 27% decrease).
• Only 9% rank defence as the top priority for extra government spending (NHS/education dominate).
• PwC Forces for Change Report (November 2025, n=3,000 UK adults aged 16+):
• 66% want UK military strength to increase over the next 10 years.
• 67% say the UK's industrial base needs strengthening to support the armed forces.
• 55% want more information on how military money is spent (only 26% feel they get enough now).
• Broader positivity: 72% have positive feelings toward the armed forces (up 11% since 2017); 63% trust the military.
• Other supporting polls (early/mid-2025):
• YouGov (Dec 2024/Feb 2025): 40% say current spending is "too little" (18% "about right"; 13% "too much"). But when framed with trade-offs, only 30% prioritise greater defence spending over public services (35% prefer keeping public services spending even if it limits defence increases).
• Redfield & Wilton (March 2025): 60% support increasing defence spending, even if it means cuts to foreign aid.
• Focal Data/More in Common (May 2025/Sunday Times): Split—36% say current level is "about right"; 26% "too low"; 21% "too high." Plurality (35%) favour increases even with taxes/cuts to health/education, but driven mainly by Con/Reform voters.

Look at the readiness of our fleet and we would at a stretch be able to get 8 ships to see. Russia could quiet literally come steaming down from the north sea and lauch a bunch of cruise missiles at us and there is nothing we could do. It would take weeks to get those 8 ships to sea and only one is air defence.

I dont want us involved in iran the problem is we live in a glass house. Our enemies could have us surrendering when they want.

but its not always just numbers but its the power of the weapons, ships, aircraft, etc that matter overall and not to mention the quality of our spooks as there intel is key to it all

Pretty sure your own data proves people want an increase.

fair points my original analysis was wrong.

the whole of earth needs a fully upto date military just that instead of fighting each other we need to fight in the galaxies

Russia, their navy remains intact. China is the big one, their military could arguably beat the u.s. leaving the uk and her allies against russia.

That would be pretty cool

Our enemies have the weapons and numbers. We have the weapons and the well trained soldiers, just not the numbers. Iran is currently winning a war of attrition against the u.s just with numbers.

a team of 10 super soldiers vs 100 average joes etc with the right intel and equipment etc the 10 would win

Im gonna say this simply. We live in a glass house. We aren't worried that we cant wave our sword around we our worried that we live in a glass house and used to live in a castle all while being on the way to possible war.

just because the media say that iran is winning, does not mean thats the true reason etc

How? In what specific way has this government made the army’s readiness worse.

Neither Russia nor China are going to invade the UK. They never were. That's not to say they may have some nasty things pointed at us. But that's not invasion.

Also, with the amount of money they have pumped into the UK, they'd much rather it made a positive return. rather than be reduced to hardcore for building.

a simiple view defcon one on our nuke facility's that would alter the dynamics

It hasn’t. The damage was done in the preceding 14 years.

You’ve got no idea.

The Tories ran the armed forces down. They cut every single service to the bone. DH was on the redundancy list 3 times, and the package they got was horrendous, fortunately he was kept in but a lot of his colleagues were let go. Since the Labour government got in, DS1 has had the biggest pay rise he’s had in the whole of his career in the army and last year, for the first time in 4 years, more people joined the armed forces than left.

People banging on about us not having enough of this, that and the other and we should get some more have got right on my nerves these past few weeks. We all know it, the Govt know it, but we’re talking about fighter jets, aircraft carriers, frigates and armoured vehicles not Ford Fiestas that you can pick up on AutoTrader. These things take time.