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[Global Times reporter Li Ziyu] According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on the 23rd, the new British Army Chief of Staff Roland Walker said that Britain must be prepared for war within three years, but at the same time said that war is not inevitable.

Roland Walker profile picture from British media

The report said that Walker warned of a series of threats in the so-called "increasingly turbulent world", but he said the British army had "enough time" to prepare to avoid conflict. Walker said that its core goal is to double the British army's combat power by 2027 and triple it by the end of the second decade of the 21st century.

The BBC said that in his first speech after taking office on the 23rd, Walker declared that "angry Russia" is one of the main threats facing Britain in the coming years, and believed that no matter who wins the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia may retaliate against Western countries that support Ukraine in the future.

The BBC said Walker said the road to war was not "unstoppable" if Britain rebuilt a reliable army to support its deterrence strategy to avoid war.

British media also noted that Walker did not mention increasing military spending or troops in his speech. He described the British Army, which has about 70,000 soldiers, as a "medium-sized army" and urged the British Army to modernize rapidly, including focusing on technologies such as artificial intelligence and firepower rather than the number of troops. In addition, his ultimate goal is to enable the British Army to destroy an enemy three times its size.

The BBC added that a week before Walker made this speech, the British government launched a "thorough" defense review to "re-examine" the challenges facing the British Army. When launching the review, the new British Defense Secretary John Healey described the current state of the British Army as "hollowed out" and said that "wasteful procurement and low morale cannot continue."

General Richard Shilliff, who served as NATO's deputy supreme commander for Europe, pointed out last month that the British Army was "severely short of ammunition," according to a report on the British "Times" website on June 27. A former Army officer who wished to remain anonymous said that due to the "cost and supply of ammunition," his former unit was not allowed to conduct regular shooting exercises on the shooting range.

Although the British Army says it can deploy two divisions of about 30,000 troops in wartime, in fact, experts believe that it is difficult for the British Army to send a 6,000-man brigade to fight overseas for a sustained period of time. Defense analyst Francis Tusa said: "In the past 10 years, the army has gone from a capable combat force to an incompetent combat force."