The British army could be wiped out in just six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict, a defense minister has warned.

Alistair Carns said a casualty rate similar to that caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would result in the army being “expended” within six to 12 months.

According to him, this illustrates the need to “rapidly generate mass in the event of a crisis”.

Official figures show the army had 109,245 troops as of October 1, including 25,814 volunteer reservists.

Carns, a former colonel in the Royal Marines and also a reservist, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers, killed or wounded, a day.

“In a full-scale war – not a limited intervention, but similar to that in Ukraine – our army, for example, at the current casualty rate, would be spent, as part of a larger multinational coalition, in six months to a year,” he added.

In a speech on reservations at Royal United Services Institute Defense Think Tank In London, Carns, the Minister for Veterans and People, said: “That doesn’t mean we need a bigger army, but it does mean we need to be able to quickly generate depth and the mass in the event of a crisis.

“Reserves are essential, absolutely central, to this process.

“Without them, we cannot generate mass, we cannot meet the plethora of defense tasks and challenges we need, and we cannot seamlessly integrate the best experts into the heart of our armed forces. “

Army reservists serve on their own time and are paid to train outside of their main job.

Carns said the reality of wars such as the one in Ukraine was that they were “attritional in nature.”

He also said the UK needed to “catch up with its NATO allies” by placing more emphasis on its reserves.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Defense Secretary John Healey had previously spoken about “the state of the armed forces inherited from the previous government”.

“That is why the Budget invested billions of pounds in defence, that is why we are undertaking a Strategic Defense Review to ensure we have the capabilities and investment to defend this country,” they added .

“It’s time to act”

Last month, Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff Lieutenant-General Sir Rob Magowan told MPs on the Defense Select Committee: “If the British Army were asked to fight tonight, she would fight tonight.

“I don’t think anyone in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded Eastern Europe tonight, we would face them in this fight.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Foreign Minister David Lammy urged European NATO members to increase their defense spending before Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The US president-elect accused European countries of relying on American taxpayers for their security.

At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Lammy said “now is the time to act” – although the UK government has yet to outline its own plans to increase its spending by defense at 2.5% of national production.

He highlighted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its involvement in conflicts across the world, including in the Middle East.

“In the UK we are at 2.3%, and we will move towards 2.5% as soon as we can get there, and we urge all allies in the NATO family to take their spending seriously. defense.

“All of our populations demand that we understand the enormous security challenges we face at this time,” he added.