Today is the 23rd anniversary of the start of the First Gulf War

But, would we win again with today’s army?

Conflict veteran Lt Col Stuart Crawford recalled: ‘I was stationed at HQ British Forces Middle East and working on the nightshift.

I was outside having my midnight “lunch” when I became aware of an unusually high level of air activity out at Riyadh airport. My colleague, who was better briefed than I, gave me a knowing look when I mentioned it, and I realised straight away that the war had started.

Over the period August 1990 to February 1991 over 50,000 service personnel were deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, a figure that Britain could not possibly aspire to today. We had two armoured brigades in theatre, the 4th and 7th, who between them fielded 221 Challenger 2 tanks, including spares and reserves.

Nowadays we’d be hard pressed to field one armoured brigade with about 50 tanks.

With war once again happening in Europe and a new but belated interest in the state of Britain’s armed services, nothing illustrates the dire straits of our army better than this dramatic fall from grace and reduction in capability.

The blame lies squarely at the door of our politicians over the past two decades, none of whom have really “got” defence, plus a succession of weak military leaders mesmerised by playing soldiers in far-off sandy places like Afghanistan and Iraq.

They took their eye completely off the ball in Europe and now we’re desperately trying to play catch up. We have left it all far too late.’

Lt Col Stuart Crawford is a defence analyst and former army officer. Sign up for his podcasts and newsletters at www.DefenceReview.uk

Lt Col Stuart Crawford’s latest book Tank Commander (Hardback) is available now

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