The war in Ukraine has opened " capacity gaps" of the British army, said Luke Pollard, who holds a leading position in the British Ministry of Defence, quoted by PA Media and DPA, writes BTA.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces said the supply of vital equipment to Ukrainian troops fighting the Russian invaders meant Britain now had to "fill the gaps" in its own stock.
The MP, whose post is at the rank of minister in Prime Minister Keir Starmer's cabinet, insisted that the military aid package for Ukraine was delivered "quite correctly" by the previous conservative government of Great Britain, with the now ruling Labor Party agreeing to this, PA and DPA specify.
However, he pointed out that this aid had opened up "some capacity gaps, particularly in the British Army". Pollard announced that London had sent to Ukraine "almost all of its" AC90 self-propelled armored artillery vehicles. "This has opened gaps in the capacity of our operational activity,", he explained at a briefing with Scottish journalists in the building of the British Ministry of Defence.
"It was the right decision, absolutely. But now we're being tested on what to do in the meantime," Pollard added. The issue of the availability of army equipment will be examined by the Strategic Defense Inspectorate, set up by the new Labor government that came to power in July.
The inspection team is headed by former British Defense Secretary and former NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson.
"We have not given instructions to the inspectorate to make cuts. "What we have asked for is to determine the exact capability of our armed forces in accordance with our needs," Pollard noted. "I think the British public are very much aware that the world is a more difficult place to live in, a more uncertain place at the moment,", he added.