UK must be able to 'fight and win wars on land', outgoing army chief says

Sky News
Updated ·3-min read

The outgoing head of the army has stressed the importance of being able to "fight and win wars on land" and has warned that crises around the world are at risk of escalating.

In a farewell video message to his soldiers, General Sir Patrick Sanders, 58, said the need to modernise the UK armed forces is "even more acute".

His comments challenge a view held by some insiders that Britain, as an island nation, should prioritise its navy and air force.

The now-former chief of the general staff spoke about efforts to revamp the army, which has had to make do with ageing weapons and insufficient ammunition because of botched procurement projects and a lack of funding.

General Sanders pointedly noted how his force of just over 72,000 troops could "deliver the same operational outputs" - with deployments around the world, including to Estonia to defend the NATO alliance's eastern flank - as they could when they were 25,000 stronger.

"You will need to rebalance, creating space for modernisation," he said in the six-minute video, which has been posted internally and shared by a defence source to Sky News.

"But, in the lee of Russia's invasion [of Ukraine] and with the imperative to mobilise, our ability to generate this level of activity was both necessary and should be seen as a badge of honour."

The top soldier, who formally stepped down on Friday, has gained a reputation for speaking out bluntly about the need to rebuild the army after decades of cost-saving cuts and at a time of growing international threats.

He was also the first to raise the prospect of training civilians to fight future wars - an intervention that saw General Sanders being publicly slapped down by the prime minister's office and by his own boss - Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the head of the whole military - only for national service to be made a headline policy in Rishi Sunak's bid for re-election.

The internal video message avoided any such controversies.

However, the long-serving commander - who is succeeded by General Sir Roly Walker - made a point of spelling out the potential for future large-scale war.

"As I hand over, the urgency and imperative of modernisation is even more acute," he said.

"The trends and drivers for conflict are converging. Global crises are at risk of escalating and are increasingly interdependent."

Underlining the need for credible land forces, the army chief said: "We know that people live on the land and land is where human affairs are settled."

He continued: "We know that for the UK, homeland defence has never started at the white cliffs of Dover."

Instead, he said defending British shores requires an army that can "operate and fight away from home", working with allies on the continent as part of NATO.

Overall, the video - slickly edited with music and images of soldiers on deployments, exercises and parades - comprised an upbeat review of his time in charge.

Read more:
National Service policy derided as 'deeply cynical'
Ukrainian troops forced to train without firing

The general talked about efforts to support Ukraine against Russia, which has seen the army give away much of its older weapons and armoured vehicles - a move that will require even greater investment in defence by whoever wins the election to replenish stockpiles.

General Sanders thanked personnel who have been operating more closely to aid Ukraine.

"Some of you have provided specialist support and advice forward for which you should be enormously proud," he said, without going into detail.

It is thought these comments include thanks to the soldiers who form part of NATO deterrence operations in eastern Europe.

Signing off with multiple words of thanks, the officer quoted from Sir Winston Churchill, who once said "you make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give".

General Sanders said: "I couldn't agree more and what I've found is that the army, you have given so much back. More than I've deserved or asked for."

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • CNN Data Reporter 'Speechless' By New Donald Trump-Joe Biden Poll: 'Holy Cow, Folks!'

    Harry Enten said it could point to "a historic moment" in American politics.

  • One-Two Punch From the Skies Is a Massive Blow to Putin

    Ukraine’s military has spent the last two years chronically short of planes. Its prewar stocks were already small in number and mostly dated from the Soviet era. When NATO and other countries sent help, they focused on either sending the same older models or keeping existing aircraft in the air through maintenance and spare parts. Russia, meanwhile, has a larger and often more advanced air force.However, new planes are on the way to help Ukraine. For nearly a year, countries like the Netherlands

  • Britain shouldn’t wave the nuclear white flag. We could flatten Russia

    As Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour party move ever faster towards No 10, aided by the Conservative party’s penchant to fall on its sword with monotonous regularity, we will soon be forced to confront the nuclear-warhead-sized elephant in the room. Promises to grow the economy are all well and good, but the security of the country is of paramount importance, especially when our Russian enemy has made its hatred for us clear.

  • Tony Blair’s bizarre statement on trans rights sums up the madness of our times

    Let’s try doing a little thought experiment. Imagine that, 20 years ago, you bumped your head and slipped into a coma – and have only now, in June 2024, regained consciousness. Naturally, you’re eager to check the news and find out what’s going on in the world. So, after a member of your family has lent you his or her iPad – and explained to you what it is and how to use it – you rush to visit The Telegraph website. And, at the top of the homepage, the very first headline you see reads as follow

  • China is almost ready for its war with the West

    While Russian forces continued their thrust towards Kharkiv over the weekend, world leaders descended on the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock in attempts to work out what a peace deal should look like. Vladimir Putin, predictably, had no interest in attending, but the absence of another world leader was more significant. Even as the US gears up to pivot its military attention to the Indo-Pacific to confront an increasingly assertive China, Xi Jinping chose not to attend.

  • Angela Rayner is a threat to European security

    It has become trite to say that the world is now more dangerous than it has been since the end of the Cold War – or perhaps even the end of the Second World War. Trite but true.

  • Cameron, not Farage, destroyed the Conservatives

    David Cameron is back from outer space to tell us Nigel Farage wants to destroy the Conservative Party, that he’s playing “dog-whistle” politics and, we can infer, the Tories ought to run a mile from him. Thus the battle lines of the next leadership contest are drawn. Early advantage goes to elites who will say the party wandered too far to the Right – a view endorsed by a billion deadly dull podcasts made by people who think the Today programme is insufficiently subjective.

  • Ukraine launches new high-powered sea drone to terrorise Russia’s Black Sea Fleet

    Ukraine has unveiled a new high-powered version of its naval sea drones that have been used to devastating effect against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

  • South Korea fires more warning shots at North Korean soldiers crossing DMZ as landmines explode

    Landmine explosions have caused multiple North Korean causalities after troops were reported to have crossed into the demilitarised zone on the border with South Korea. In a separate incident the Yonhap news agency reported that South Korea's military had fired warning shots at a group of 20 to 30 North Koreans who had breached the Military Demarcation Line. It comes as Russia's President Vladimir Putin begins a visit to Pyongyang, his first trip to North Korea in 24 years, and marks the second border violation in just two weeks.

  • Farage claims Reform UK has been ‘stitched up’ over candidate vetting

    Nigel Farage said Reform had paid ‘a large sum of money’ to a firm to scrutinise its candidates but has been let down.

  • Russia's war in Ukraine began in Crimea. It could end there, too, defense experts say.

    Ukrainian forces have ramped up attacks on key targets in Crimea and the Black Sea in recent months.

  • David Cameron is a disgrace to Britain

    Why would anybody trust the Conservative Party to make the big decisions about the future of Britain, when they can’t even agree on what to do about Nigel Farage?

  • Anthony Fauci Memoir Recalls His Last Conversation With Donald Trump: ‘That F**ker Biden’

    The then-president also reportedly made a bold prediction that didn't come true.

  • New US weapons narrow gap between Ukraine and Russian forces

    US military artillery shells have reached frontline Ukrainian units and have started to break Russian battlefield momentum.

  • Jon Stewart Busts 'Right-Wing Motherf**kers' Like Trump Over 1 Huge Lie

    The "Daily Show" host tore into conservatives over a major hypocrisy on a key talking point.

  • Ukraine claims its drones hit a Russian oil facility, sparking a huge blaze

    Ukraine claimed responsibility Tuesday for an overnight drone attack on a Russian oil facility that started a massive blaze in the latest long-range strike by Kyiv’s forces on a border region. Ukraine has in recent months stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine. Moscow’s army is pressing hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where a shortage of troops and ammunition in the third year of war has made defenders vulnerable.

  • Britain is already at war, and nobody wants to admit it

    There are fewer than three weeks to go until polling day and, amid all the desperate campaigning and counter-campaigning, there is a dog that hasn’t barked – even though it is perhaps the most vital of all for our long-term survival.

  • Minister Humiliated As Sky News Unveils 'Visible Evidence Government Has Failed' On Small Boats

    The broadcaster put Mark Spencer's face next to live footage of a boat full of rescued migrants.

  • Drivers slam 'worst parking ever' after cars dumped on roundabout outside mosque

    Angry drivers have slammed 'Britain's worst parking' after cars were dangerously abandoned on a busy city roundabout outside one of the UK's biggest mosques. Thousands of Muslims descended on Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif in Small Heath, Birmingham, after celebrating Eid-al-Adha on Monday (17/6). But shocking photos show how dozens of worshippers sparked traffic chaos by dumping their vehicles on one of the busiest roundabouts in the city. Onlookers said there was at least one collision and several near-misses as drivers attempted to reverse off the Poet's Corner roundabout into oncoming traffic. And despite the huge numbers of illegally parked cars, it's believed there were no parking fines issued throughout the morning. Simon Gutteridge, 40, who had been trying to get to work when he got stuck along the A45 Small Heath Highway, said it was a 'miracle nobody was badly hurt or killed'.

  • The British Army trains in Kenya. Many women say soldiers raped them and abandoned children they fathered

    Seventeen-year-old Marian Pannalossy cuts a striking figure wherever she goes in Archer’s Post, a small town 200 miles north of Nairobi. She lives alone and is light-skinned in a place where mixed-race people are a rarity and therefore ostracized.