PNN – The disclosure of safety defects in more than 120,000 British military armors has once again exposed the structural weaknesses of the country’s military and has raised serious questions about the British government’s inability to provide safe equipment for the armed forces.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, the Guardian newspaper revealed that according to the investigations, the armor of the army forces, especially in the naval and marine units, suffered from microscopic cracks. The problem was revealed while the equipment was supposed to be replaced in 2023, but previous governments decided to postpone the modernization of the army’s armor until 2027 to cut costs.
British Deputy Defense Minister Luke Pollard has ordered the collection of these armors from operational units. Stating that the new government “will not take risks”, he said that the process of replacing these armors will be accelerated quickly instead of 2027. However, critics see the move as merely a belated response to previous governments’ chronic failure to provide the military with safe equipment.
This incident has become the media when defense experts had warned about the weakness of the British army’s safety equipment for years. Designed more than 30 years ago, the ACB armor system was long ago abandoned for front-line missions, but is still used by naval, training and guard units.
The Labor Party, which is now in power, has attributed the crisis to the Conservative government. Government sources claim that this failure to provide safe equipment for soldiers is a reminder of Boris Johnson’s government’s inability to provide medical protective equipment (PPE) for medical staff during the Corona era. During that period, a shortage of masks, gloves and protective equipment put the lives of thousands of doctors and nurses at risk, and the Conservative government faced widespread criticism for mismanagement.
The crisis comes as Starmer’s government claims that Britain is facing increasing threats from Russia, China and other “hostile states”. But the revelation of infrastructural weaknesses in the army has raised the question of whether London is really able to defend itself and play a role in NATO.
On the other hand, the debate on increasing the British defense budget is still ongoing. Keir Starmer’s government has announced that it will increase the military budget from 2.33% of GDP to 2.5%, but no specific timetable has yet been provided for this increase. The UK’s Strategic Defense Review (SDR) document is currently being drafted and its initial results are expected to be published in March. Some observers believe that this new crisis will create more pressure to increase the defense budget.
But the revelation of a catastrophic flaw in the British military’s armor has once again heated up the discussion of structural weakness in the country’s army. In a situation where London claims to be facing external threats and is trying to strengthen its role in NATO, the disclosure of such gross weaknesses in the defense infrastructure is a serious challenge for the Starmer government.
The question now is whether the Starmer government, despite the many crises, can restore public confidence in the military’s defense capability. According to observers, the recent incident is another example of deep and rooted problems in the British military structure, which will not be resolved soon.