They Still Cannot Resign Themselves...

... to a simple fact that UK is not a player in modern geopolitics. It is a small island nation with acutely manifested phantom pains of imperial greatness which disappeared completely after WW II and has been gone now for more than 75 years. Militarily United Kingdom is a midget with semi-autonomous "control" of her nuclear arsenal which in effect are the crumbs from the American nuclear weapons' table. Royal Navy, despite operating a couple of useless aircraft carriers, has only a very few nuclear subs as a real factor in any serious conflict. But the state of the British ground forces is altogether something out of a Benny Hill show, because for all intents and purposes those ground forces do not exist as a viable fighting force. Most importantly, UK doesn't have resources to build anything serious in terms of modern land war. But this is not how British military establishment views it. 

The new head of the British Army has issued a rallying cry to troops - telling them they need to be ready to face Russia on the battlefield.

Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, who started the job last week, addressed all ranks and civil servants in an internal message on 16 June, seen by the BBC.Russia's invasion of Ukraine shows the need "to protect the UK and be ready to fight and win wars on land", he says. He adds the Army and allies must now be "capable of...defeating Russia".A defence source told the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Beale the tone of the message - issued on the Ministry of Defence's internal intranet - was unsurprising.They said all armies train to fight, but the threat has clearly changed. Gen Sir Patrick noted in the message that he was the first Chief of the General Staff "since 1941 to take command of the Army in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a major continental power".

To fight and win a modern combined arms war against Russia one needs a helluva more resources than UK has or will ever have. But even before one begins to factor in a rather pathetic state of British economy and military technological development, one has to consider a fighting doctrine issue. For starters, Russia is not going to attack UK, unless headless chickenhawks from NATO decide to commit suicide. But then it wouldn't matter anyway--Russia will rearrange stones in London and nothing UK (or, in broader terms, NATO) can do about it. But the issue is even larger, it is this ever present Barnett's 14 points paradigm in which UK is simply non-present with the exception of the financial factor, while the United States is already losing its share in those 14 points with increasing speed. But, in the end, the country which elects BoJo (or, rather, Bozo) as its PM can hardly hope to get itself out of an economic hole which it dug for itself and without it there is very little UK can do for "fighting Russia" other than to continue to buy overpriced and dubiously effective US arms. 

This also brings us to the issue of SMO and not just material resources but issues of C4ISR in which only two countries are competing against each-other and you already guessed it--these are Russia and the US. UK does not even count in matters of combat control, netcentric warfare, full ISR complex, including its space-based assets. So, that reduces any UK military force from today into the future to mere a cannon fodder addition to NATO (read US) military adventurism and I am on record--read my lips: the United States lost the arms race to Russia and the gap only grows. The demonstration of a superb ISR of Russia happened today (in some parts yesterday):

Russian warships have destroyed a Ukrainian command center with Kalibr cruise missiles, killing dozens officers, Moscow's Defense Ministry reported on Sunday. “More than 50 generals and officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed,” the statement outlined. The strike took place near the village of Shirokaya Dacha in Dnepropetrovsk Region. It hit a compound where commanders of several Ukrainian units had gathered for a meeting, according to Moscow. The ministry added that Kalibr missiles were also used to destroy 10 M777 howitzers and up to 20 armored vehicles that were recently delivered from the West, and had been stored inside a factory building in the southern city of Nikolayev.

Russian Duma already responded to these wet dreams of this British military "leader". 

«Вместо того, чтобы попытаться усадить Зеленского за стол переговоров, видные военачальники Британии начинают предаваться мечтам о создании необычайно мощной армии. Они уже грезят о походах и войне на европейском континенте. Но это не способствует улучшению ситуации ни на Украине, ни в Европе, ни в мире», – сказал Герой Российской Федерации, первый заместитель председателя комитета Госдумы по обороне Андрей Красов.«Сейчас весь Запад нацелен только на то, чтобы, как они говорят, «ослабить мощь России». Но эти амбиции неосуществимы. Дело в том, что наши Вооруженные силы обладают всем необходимым для того, чтобы выполнять поставленные перед ними задачи. И ярким тому примером служит специальная военная операция на Украине», – подчеркнул собеседник. Сами же намерения Патрика Сандерса «можно лишь охарактеризовать фразой «надежды юношей питают», отметил Красов. Он также указал на тот факт, что «Великобритании будет довольно сложно превзойти военную мощь России». 

Translation: “Instead of trying to bring Zelensky to the negotiating table, Britain's top military leaders are beginning to dream of building an extraordinarily powerful army. They are already dreaming of campaigns and war on the European continent. But this does not help improve the situation either in Ukraine, or in Europe, or in the world,” said Andrey Krasov, Hero of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee. “Now the whole West is aimed only at, as they say, "weaken the power of Russia." But these ambitions are not feasible. The fact is that our Armed Forces have everything necessary to carry out the tasks assigned to them. And a vivid example of this is the special military operation in Ukraine,” the interlocutor stressed. The very intentions of Patrick Sanders “can only be characterized by the phrase “the hopes of young men are nourished,” Krasov noted. He also pointed to the fact that "It will be quite difficult for the UK to surpass the military power of Russia."

Krasov (in Russian) knows what he is talking about, he has a very rich combat (combined arms) experience as paratroop regiment CO, later as Deputy CO of Pskov (76th) air assault division. It is not like he has a degree in marketing. The fate of the West, especially Europe is already decided, and it is not pretty. So, Sir Sanders can dream whatever he wants but UK IS NOT a serious military power and without the US, which itself declines militarily dramatically, is a non-entity which would not sustain serious scale combined arms war for any duration of time. But, it seems, the only war Western generals are good at is the one in publicity and PR. The real combat record, however, is somewhat lacking, to put it mildly, and that should be kept in mind, whenever one hears from the America's lapdogs.

Here is London today:

And this is just the start. Things will get much worse, but I am sure Great Britain's General Staff already made a proper forecast, right? After all, this is what general staffs do--they provide strategic forecasts. In between planning for tolerance and discovery of new genders, and figuring out what people of UK will eat and how they will heat their houses. Other than that--it is all double plus good. Carry on, Sir. 

IngSoc was never closer than it is today.