Britain's Shrinking Military - From Cold War Colossus to Cash-Strapped Shadow

Looks like diplomacy would have a better rate of return.

It's funny how the worst points of finger at Russia and have corrupt their military is widget probably is.. goodbye the corruption in the British army and the American military is probably far worse..

Perhaps it should be made law, if Britain declares war politicians and their family must serve on the front line including the civil servants who pay military equipment, they have never served and Normally buy rubbish for soldiers to use.

Can you explain to me why Russia would want to attack and occupy Europe?
Putin has stated he does not want to occupy all of Ukraine. But will keep Crimea and those oblasts which are mainly ethnic Russians.
Given Russia has taken 3 years to capture 20% of Ukraine, do our political leaders honestly believe that Russia could take on the combined European armies, in a non-nuclear attack?

Use pakistani man power and industry alot of their officers are trained in uk.get a divisions from them Nepalese and other countries under uks influence. And have a big reserve force.

This video has aged well....

Well, where did the money go?...................

No wonder they are afraid to fight China for Hong Kong

You guys are pathetic...better get rid of that free healthcare lolololol

Interesting how Russia's firepower of today, compares to that of the Soviet Union.

Since the previous century, UK has never won a battle on their own.

Now the British don't have money to pay their Tommies😂😂😂😂. How can they afford that with the loss of the colonies? 😂😂😂😂😂

This video didn't mention that the UK population increased by almost 20% (~11 million) from 57.5 million in 1990 to 68.5 million in 2024, so there are significantly more civilians, while the size of the armed forces has halved, as the number of military personnel decreased from ~300k to ~140k, over the same period.

Having said, this video comparison is misleading, as it doesn't take into consideration that in 1990 the size of the UK military reflected the requirement to defend against the USSR during the Cold War, which ended in 1990. Hence, a more appropriate comparison would be to compare with 2000.

Between 2000 and 2010 the UK military had ~200k personnel, but this number declined every year after 2010, until there were only ~145k in 2020.

No beans on toast is not equipped to take on Russia

Needs must. Moreover, the value of a country is more than its armed forces

Turkey had been th Nr.2 NATO power, not the UK.

Socialism tends to weaken economic output by overregulation and increase welfare state payments.

There's an easy way to solve all the armed forces manpower shortages but the UK, trapped as it is in an unending frothing paroxysm of racism and xenophobia would never countenance it.

you guys are gonna be kinda like,,,,, Russia‘s Hawaii

The russians were smart to keep their military to counter western aggression. Also the Usa really colonised and took over brits power. Poor guys dont even own their major companies Cadbury (chocolate), Jaguar Land Rover (automobiles) sold to americans who later sold it to Tata india , and Asda (supermarket) all owned by americans

What once was.

Russ1a isnt just de-militarizing Ukra1ne via opting to fight them through a chosen attritional war, but also the rest of the western world along with them (yes, Europe and U S A are looking for an off-ramp because theyre terribly depleted of vital stocks of ammunition; nobody in the west can can fight a high-intensity war).

The Jew.....killed off Christian Russia , Christian Germany now it's us and the rest of the West.
Wake up to our Real enemy.

Imam Mahdi and Charles. Be warned what you swear allegiance to in the long run.

Besides the luxury of politicians virtue signalling there spending on benefits, foreign aid and NHS instead of defence... there has been a drive to establish a eu military force that we would have been a component. We'd have provided, strategic sea power (the carriers), teeth infantry and strategic logistics and the air force would have provided the strategic lift - air transport

I watched live when the UK took back the Falkland Islands. It was impressive to see them conduct operations.

Why defend a country that jails you for expressing an opinion?

Western tech looks good until it comes up against Russian tech

"Soviet aggression!? "Russian aggression"? Oh do shut up Mark, Nato is the most aggressive imperial force on earth. Ask the Jugoslavs if you don't believe me. After the Red Army went home the British state obediently reorganised its state forces for colonial repression. Such forces are no match for the Russian army because they aren't intended to be.

England is finished

The racial and class animosity produced by woke politics has probably reduced what little they have left to an undisciplined rabble.

What on earth makes people think they can fight Russia?

This is bound to happen
Now britain has no colonies like india to steal money and resources
Worst is yet to come and british socity economy militry everything is going to collapse

shocking just how bad the UK air force is now... in 1991 they still would of had a more powerfull Air force than China and a more powerfull Navy and could hold there own easily...... fast forward to 2025 and now China easily beats the UK in Navy and Air force by a huge amount its not even close.... China now has an almost 200 strong Destroyer Frigate Corvette force and there Corvettes are very well armed too , China has almost 100 subs and could get to 100 they will get to 6 aircraft carriers and will have over 12 large logistic ships and helicopter carriers soon. 80 percent of there entire fleet now and modern and new and you could argue that China Navy today is more modern then the UK as the UK main ship a frigate dates back to an early 80s design that there still using. China has over 220 5th gen fighters now with the J20 and that number is growing quick you have a 1900 plus combat jet air force vs the UK with just 130 or less???? Yes the Chinese economy has grown a lot all thanks to the western rediculous idea they can make a country drop commusnim and copy western values by making them richer when the exact opposite is true China has gives you the middle finger and keeps the money they get from all the tech they steal from the factory knowledge you import there for free.

to make things even look worse for the UK there frigate plus destroyer fleet today is only 16 not even 18 there Frigates are being replaced far too late and becoming unseaworthy now, there replacement program is silly AUS and CAN are buying into it the type 26 will be the most expensive frigate on earth costing more than a burke US destroyer and probably equal in cost to 7 general purpose Chinese frigates it will yet again make the Uk and commonwealth weaker, whos idea at BAE was it to make a 4 billion 8000 tonne Frigate with just 32 VLS be the ultimate counter to a brand new 500 million diesel sub that is designed to sink ships and always has the advantage???? its not a cost effective way to beat subs using air power like the P8 aircraft is. The UK just sold its 2 big logistic ships to Brazil now too making them even smaller with no replacement and there Ballistic missle subs are way over budget. There carrier too ended up costing 12 billion basically the UK paid the same price as a huge US nuke carrier but got a downgraded smaller Diesel carrier with a Ski ramp instead. It doesnt even have catapults making the French Carrier carry the same number of aircraft as the UK even with a far smaller carrier . The UK active tank fleet is probably now just 200 or less and until recently Russia had a huge 20,000 tanks in use or in storage and even now with all those losses they still have such huge numbers

if i had to pick one western country that had a huge powerfull military before but is so small today it would be the UK. What is not mentioned too in this video is all the huge extra population the UK has since 1990 and how all the illegal immigration is made nationalism dissapear there is no loyality to the UK people just go there gain benefits and self interest same in AUS and Canaada Canada too has an even worse propblem they were the number 4 Navy in the World at the end of WW2 now they barely have a working sub fleet no destroyers no logistics no carriers only 90 or so 4th gen fighters for there airforce there army has no attack helicopters or much artillery and there budget is only 1 percent GDP most of the time.... AUS too had the same size Navy today as it did back in the 60s when they had 3 times less people. The army in AUS full time was only 26 000 recently and they struggle to even hold that yet in WW2 they had 7 divisions with a population of just 7 million unlike almost 28 million today . New zealand too only has 2 frigates for there entire Navy and no Air force no fighter jets and no artillery just 12 small towed its a FIJI sized army of just 3500 people.... the Commonwealth countries are all 3 times weaker and smaller today then they were in 19991 at the same time China military has grown by 1000 percent in capability and power and continues to grow. The Indian military has also grown a lot with India today having a far stronger air force than the UK with up to 6 times there numbers and still having good tech unlike in 1991 where the UK would of been far far stronger than India in everything

this video aged unbelievably well - Starmers ramblings about rearming UKR notwithstanding...

Been warning the UK about this for many years. How could the citizens be ok with this? They always said the same line over and over again, “yes, but they’re highly trained”. Ok, but how highly trained are we talking about here? Do you have an Army of T-1000s? I’m an American and was shocked to see they have 250 tanks. WTH you gonna do with that?

They cut defence spending..And ,did what with the money saved?....Where's all that gone then?

Meanwhile the US is going bankrupt trying to be everyone’s armed forces

🇷🇺 🇷🇺 🇷🇺 GLORY TO RUSSIA - Z - СЛАВА РОССИИ 🇷🇺 🇷🇺 🇷🇺

Going from 4.1% of GDP for your defense, to 2.5%, is kinda like y’all (all of Europe) just decided that the USofA will bail y’all out b/c of NATO clause #5… so I guess that’s why the current tangerine man ol’ trumpie is playing the uncertainty game as to his administration’s willingness to continue to play the EU’s bodyguard role?

England - another country expecting the USA to bail them out....AGAIN.....in case of another war

Sun finally set on empire 😂

Operations would be drastically different with the drone threat

Size isn't.... Oh nevermind 😅

I wouldn't say things have improved in the aircraft carrier department. Yes, the Queen Elizabeth class carries are much bigger. However, isn't The Prince of Wales perpetually broken down? Neither have been able to participate in NATO exercises. Also, why on earth did they choose STOVL over CATOBAR? Anyway...... Aside from that last bit, the Queen Elizabeth class has been a mess. For anyone not familiar, Google them and you will see.

6th biggest military budget isn't being cash strapped, especially when we are an island. The issue is the people that control that budget, giving manufacturing jobs to their buddies. Same reason the US budget is so extreme, because it costs them 10x as much to make anything.

The idea that any country wants a hot war with Russia is lunacy! Say we go to war with Russia, no one is talking about what China is going to do. Do they sit back and watch what happens or do they see another conflict in Europe as the perfect opportunity to initiate a potential invasion of Taiwan? That’s the likely outcome of any major conflict in Europe. China has been arming itself and the west, mainly the United States has been funding it with the cheap imports we buy from China.