Britain has just four fighter jets ready to take off immediately in the face of an impending Russian attack on the territory of the United Kingdom, warned a former commander of the Royal Air Force in an interview with the "Sun" tabloid, BNR reported.
Air Marshal Greg Bagwell tells the publication that Britain's armed forces do not have the capacity to defend against a "significant" attack by Vladimir Putin's forces if he strikes tomorrow. He warns that two decades of relative peace in the post-Cold War era have meant that Britain, like much of Europe's NATO member states, has come to underestimate the Russian threat and has underinvested in the military.
And this lack of foresight means that the "second rate" UK armed forces only have the capacity to respond to a "limited" a Russian attack involving several planes and missiles, Greg Bagwell points out. The former fighter pilot, who served in the Royal Air Force for 36 years, warns that the only four Typhoon fighters available rapid response capabilities are woefully inadequate if Putin decides to launch a major attack against Britain similar to the one against Ukraine.
Bagwell clarified that the rest of the air force could be "relatively quickly brought to combat readiness" under enemy threat, but British resources will soon be exhausted.