Britain’s disappearing armed forces have shrunk by almost 200,000 troops since the the Cold War, in a staggering decline of the UK’s defences.
The RAF now has one of the smallest combat fleets in history, while the British Army looks set to drop below 70,000 for the first time since the Napoleonic era.
Meanwhile, the Royal Navy’s fleet – once the crowing jewel of Britain’s military might – now has barely enough active warships to field a single carrier strike group.
It comes as Keir Starmer heads to America for crunch talks with Donald Trump over the war in Ukraine, after yesterday vowing to ramp up Britain’s defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
At the height of the Cold War, when the threat of a nuclear apocalypse sparked by Russia was at its worst, the nation’s navy had hundreds of warships.
In 1960, its vast fleet had eight aircraft carriers at its disposal and could call upon 156 frigates and destroyers. By the early 1980s, however, this number had almost halved.
Now, there are just two aircraft carriers – both of which have been bedevilled by breakdowns – six one-billion-pound-a-piece Type 45 destroyers and a handful of ageing frigates and patrol ships.
Towards the end of the Cold War, Britain had about 308,800 military personnel across all three wings of the armed forces. Now it has around 137,000.
In 1989, the British Army alone had 156,000 soldiers. Now it is closer to 70,000, following a series of brutal cutbacks which have ravaged its numbers.
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Britain’s disappearing armed forces have shrunk by almost 200,000 troops since the the Cold War, in a staggering decline of the UK’s defences (pictured are UK troops training in Romania)
The Royal Navy’s fleet – once the crowing jewel of Britain’s military might – now has barely enough active warships to field a single carrier strike group. Pictured are HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales
The decline prompted a dire warning from a senior US General last year, who said the nation’s Army ‘isn’t what it used to be’.
And in a fresh humiliation, European and Nato allies reportedly ridiculed the force over its outdated rifles, which would struggle to kill Russian or Chinese troops in advanced body armour.
The Army still uses the L115A3 ‘sniper’ rifle, while other armed forces had updated to the same company’s AX models, which are lighter and enable soldiers to see further in the distance, according to a serving senior officer.
One British officer warned the UK was now a laughing stock, telling the Times: ‘The Europeans used to love all of our kit but now laugh at it.’
They said elite snipers from a Nato ally in eastern Europe were ‘mind blown’ by the UK still using the old rifles.
Meanwhile, the RAF – which used to have around 850 fighters, interceptors and fighter-bombers a few decades ago – now has around 560 fixed-winged aircraft, including 137 supersonic Typhoons and 34 F-35B stealth jets.
Sir Keir Starmer this week sought to put the nation on a war footing as he announced billions of pounds more would be spent on bolstering the nation’s hollowed out military.
It comes as allies like Germany, Denmark and Poland sought to ramp up their defence spending amid the mounting threat posed by Russian tyrant, Vladimir Putin.
Marine from 45 Commando are seen training in Norway on February 16
A Royal Marine Commando Mortar team operating from a Viking, Norway, Feb 19, 2025
During the Cold War, Britain had about 1,200 tanks, including Chieftains (right). Now it has just over 200, made up of Challenger 2 tanks (left)
Speaking to MPs on Tuesday, Sir Keir declared that by 2027, Britain would up its defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP – boosting this to three per cent ‘in the next Parliament’.
He hailed it the ‘biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War’.
But it is not clear how that would be paid for, with the foreign aid budget now set to fall from 0.5 per cent of national income to 0.3 per cent.
Although the PM claimed his commitment will mean £13.4billion a year extra for defence from 2027, in fact it is more like £6billion in real terms.
The MoD is adamant that exactly what the cash will be spent on will be revealed in the strategic defence review, due to be published this spring.
However, in theory, this would be enough to fund a host of new military kit.
As an example, it could pay for an extra £3.2billion Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier and two new Type 26 frigates, worth a total of £1.68billion, to the fleet.
And the cash could fund an additional 74 Challenger 3 main battle tanks, worth about £400m to add to Britain’s current order of 148 tanks.
An additional 10 F-35B stealth jets could be added to Britain’s ranks, at a cost of around £640million. Currently the UK has 34 of the jets, with a commitment to buy a total of 138 of the hi-tech aircraft.
The Royal Navy has six £1bn-a-piece Type 45 destroyers (pictured is one of them, HMS Diamond in the Bay of Biscay)
And Britain has almost 40 F-35B stealth jets, some of the most advanced warplanes in history
Based out of RAF Marham, the stealth jets are capable of flying from the decks of the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers.
And for the Army, the cash influx could be see an extra 1,000 British soldiers being trained for about £47.8million.
The nation’s air defences could also be boosted, with the remainder of the £6billion potentially being able to fund the purchase of 41 more Storm Shadows missiles at £767,000 a piece, and an additional 10 lightweight multirole missiles, worth £50,000 each, which can be fired by soldiers in the field to destroy jets and helicopters.
But realistically, the cash is expected to be spent on ‘less headline-grabbing items’ but that are ‘equally as important’, defence sources have told MailOnline.
These include covering pay rises for troops, believed to cost around £1billion, as well as improving the nation’s woeful state of accommodation, in a bid to strop families leaving the military after being forced to live in ‘squalid’ conditions.
Other areas could are tarmacking RAF runways and purchasing ‘enablers’, lorries which transfer service personnel, weapons and equipment onto trains and ships.
Also on the cards, would like be replenishing ammunition stockpiles – which have been depleted through donations to Ukraine – as well as spares, and improved training.
‘The devil is in the small print but let’s assume there is some money, there are a lot of things that we do need to fix which have been under-invested in over the last two or three decades,’ one senior defence source said.
29 Commando Royal Artillery operate the 105mm Light Gun (L118) during Commando Force training in Norway, on February 17
‘These are really dull and don’t grab the headlines but they are absolutely critical when it comes to delivering effective organisations and capabilities.’
Former tank commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said Britain should focus on building up its air defence kit, stockpiling more missiles and recruiting more specialist soldiers trained to shoot down jets and helicopters.
As well as calling for Britain to bolster the Army’s manpower to at least 80,000, the veteran military chief said cash must be spent on improving training for troops.
‘One of the key lessons coming out of Ukraine is how important training is,’ he said. ‘You need to invest in this otherwise you will be able to little more than just charge at the enemy.’
He added: ‘As far as the big-ticket items are concerned, it’s all about air defence, which we are very short of right now. And drones – we have invested in very expensive, capable drones but few of them. We need the AI-generated masses.
‘We don’t need more tanks – Challenger 3 is coming online. However, I would get rid of our aircraft carriers. They’re very expensive to run so I would trade them.
‘The carriers were procured when most senior members form the MoD were in the navy and they believed that carriers were desperately needed. Ukraine has shown us this is not the case. For domination of a carrier-type capability, we have got Cyprus.’
The colonel also urged the MoD to continue investing in future technologies too like the DragonFire laser weapon system, which costs just £10 per shot and can potentially down drones and missiles.
He said this tech, once refined, could potentially be fitted to Britain’s new fleet of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to make them ‘more lethal’.
Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded Britain’s forces in Afghanistan and is a former member of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said the nation’s military had been allowed to ‘wither’ and warned that desperate investment was needed.
Three British soldiers and a Romanian soldier practice an assault in Romania on February 17
He said since Putin’s forces invaded Russia in February 2022, the British Army had shrunk by around 10,000 people.
‘As Putin was rolling around Ukraine and politicians were talking about a much greater threat, we were cutting our army down,’ he told MailOnline, adding: ‘Both Army and Navy equipment has been allowed to wither on the vine.
‘One thing Ukraine shows is you still need conventional armed forces on the ground like tanks, artillery and engineering equipment.’
He added a ‘major shortcoming’ in the UK’s armed forces was its air defences. Currently, the Army has two specialised air defence units – 12 Regiment and 16 Regiment Royal Artillery.
Col Kemp said more cash needed to be pumped into upping the kit soldiers are able to use to protect the skies from drone and missile attacks.
‘We need a far more comprehensive missile defence system. What we have now is completely inadequate,’ he warned.
Writing in the Mail, Sir Keir trumpeted his vow to hike military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027.
Pictured is a Gunner from 170 Battery, 12 Regiment Royal Artillery operating the lightweight multiple missile launcher used to take down helicopters and jets
A female soldier from 16 Regiment Royal Artillery is pictured next to the Sky Sabre missile defence system
The premier dismissed Labour complaints about slashing the foreign aid budget to fund the move, saying the world is entering an ‘era of hard power’ and capabilities had to be ramped up.
He argued that the deteriorating world order posed a ‘generational’ challenge and Britain ‘cannot hide’ from the growing threat posed by Russia and other hostile states.
‘The realities of our dangerous new era mean that hard power must now take precedence,’ he said.
‘The national security of our country must always come first.’
The pledge came as the PM jetted off to Washington DC for a crucial meeting with Donald Trump.
Sir Keir will look to urge the US President to stand by Nato and Ukraine.
The additional defence cash was welcomed by the Trump administration, with defense secretary Pete Hegseth saying it was ‘a strong step from an enduring partner’.
However, Mr Trump has argued that European states should be spending five per cent of GDP on defence – far more than the US does.
29 Commando Royal Artillery operate the 105mm Light Gun in Norway earlier this month
And many critics warned said the increase will not be enough.
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace said it was a ‘staggering desertion of leadership’.
While one senior MoD source said the money was a ‘welcome drop in the ocean’ but warned that to fight a war, the UK needed to spend five per cent of GDP.
‘If we needed to fight a war of survival as we planned to do in the Cold War, we would probably have to spend double than what we have now,’ the source told The Times.
Aid charities also vented fury at the cut, with Labour former Cabinet minister David Miliband saying it was a ‘blow to Britain’s proud reputation as a global humanitarian and development leader’.
There has been huge pressure – including from a Mail campaign – to invest more in the UK’s security.
Alarm has been growing in Europe over how reliable an ally America will be under Mr Trump.
Earlier this week the US took an axe to decades-old alliances at the UN – voting with Russia, China and North Korea on resolutions about Ukraine.
It is thought to be the first time since 1945 that America has sided with Russia at the international body on an issue of European security.
