A senior air force commander has slammed the dismal record of British military spending and warned the RAF would run out of air-to-air missiles within days if it was drawn into a full-scale war.
Air Marshal Edward Stringer, the former director general of the UK’s Joint Forces Deployment, has warned the country’s military is being “overstretched”.
In a scathing criticism, the RAF chief blasted Whitehall bureaucrats for failing to stockpile enough munitions.
He also called a £1.7 billion project to build a fleet of 16 unmanned drones a “waste of money”, and claimed the plane would be shot down within days if Britain entered at war with countries like Russia or China.
Speaking to MailOnline, the RAF veteran said: “We have pursued what is called the ‘balanced force’. It’s nice to have all the money in the world. But we don’t.
“How many days would it be before we run out of air-to-air missiles – maybe five. It’s a matter of days. It certainly doesn’t take weeks.
Britain could run out of vital air-to-air missiles within days if the nation is drawn into war, a senior RAF commander has warned (pictured, an RAF plane fires a short-range missile).
Air Marshal Edward Stringer, the former director general of the UK’s Joint Forces Deployment, has warned the country’s military is being “overstretched”.
The veteran air chief also raised concerns over the RAF’s new fleet of Protector drones, which are set to replace the Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles.
Built by General Atomics in the United States, the plane has a wingspan of about 79 feet – larger than most business jets – and can cruise at 40,000 feet for more than 30 hours.
It also has surveillance sensors and is capable of carrying 500-pound laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles.
But the cost of the new generation of war machines has exploded, from an estimated cost of £1.25 billion in 2016 to £1.76 billion today.
The price rise was revealed in a series of ministerial responses to Labor’s written parliamentary questions in recent months.
According to documents, a decision by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) in 2021 to delay the project by two years in a bid to save money added around £187m to the programme.
Other issues that led to increased costs included late changes to the design, which resulted in the aircraft’s main sensors being replaced to prevent them from becoming obsolete.
Commenting on the Protector drones, Air Marshal Stringer warned: “The RAF happily announces that it is taking up the first of 16 Protector drones.
The veteran air chief also raised concerns over the new £1.7bn fleet of Protector drones (pictured) which are set to replace the Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles.
Military leaders, experts and politicians have already called for more money to be spent on improving Britain’s air defenses, to create an Israeli-style “Iron Dome”. The photo shows an example of how the UK could respond to a large-scale air attack and areas that could be protected.
Pictured is how Russia could potentially take advantage of a so-called “gap” in Britain’s air defense, as military experts raised at a conference in London last week.
“Billions of pounds have been spent on drones that would not last a week in the event of war. It’s a waste of money.’
He also criticized Britain’s £1.4 billion Watchkeeper spy drone project, which was branded a “total disaster” after numerous accidents, despite the devices being too heavy and struggling in bad weather.
The planes, worth £30million each, need their own take-off runway before they can start spying on enemy positions, Air Marshal Stringer said.
“How, when you’re under Russian artillery fire, how can you expect to be able to take a few days to flatten a field and then set up a little airfield to operate the little Watchkeeper – without the Russians bombing you”, did he declare. Added Air Marshal.
“It’s not a concept that works in the modern world.”
Labour’s shadow defense secretary John Healey previously said Protector’s soaring costs were an example of the MoD’s “broken” public procurement system and wasteful attitude towards of taxpayers’ money.
Conservative MP Mark Francois, a former Minister for the Armed Forces, also expressed concern about the state of the RAF.
Mr François, who sits on Parliament’s influential defense committee, told MailOnline: “Not only do we have a limited war supply of air-to-air missiles, we have no supply of combat aircraft to fire them.
“This is why it is crucial that when the RAF withdraws its 30 first tranche Typhoons next year, IHe abandoned plans to sell them, but instead stored them as a “war reserve fighter wing” consisting of three valuable fighter squadrons.
Former Defense Minister Mark Francois has called on the MoD not to sell 30 of the UK’s oldest Typhoon planes and keep them in reserve (pictured is a Typhoon)
“It takes four years to build a Typhoon from scratch, so it’s best to keep them – just in case.”
This week, Rishi Sunak committed the UK to spending 2.5% of its GDP on defense by 2030 – as the Prime Minister sought to put the country on a “war footing”.
The commitment has been billed as the biggest defense boost in a generation, amounting to an extra £75 billion for the MoD.
Hailing a “turning point” in national security, the Prime Minister said the increase in military spending would make Britain “by far the greatest defense power in Europe”.
The investment proved a major victory for the Mail’s ‘Don’t leave Britain defenseless’ campaign, which called on the government to provide billions more to better equip the country’s military.
Last month, a former defense minister claimed that Britain’s military stocks were so low that the country would run out of ammunition in 10 days if war broke out.
Labor MP John Spellar, who was Minister for the Armed Forces between 1999 and 2001, told Parliament: “The minister is rightly talking about the ability to sustain combat, he knows that an exercise with the Americans showed that the British army would run out of ammunition. within 10 days.’
MailOnline has contacted the Ministry of Defense for comment.
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