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Michael Fallon says that British armed forces are anything but ‘feeble’
DB News: 22/06/2015 - 11:21
Fallon claimed that “no country in Europe is playing such a strong global role” and hailed Britain’s operation against Islamic State (IS), as well as commending British involvement in recent NATO training exercises.
Fallon wrote: “Today, 4,000 brave and capable men and women of our three Armed Forces are working around the clock on 21 different joint operations in 19 countries. That's double the number five years ago.”
Referring to the UK’s commitment to NATO and deterring Russian aggression, Fallon claimed that the UK is “in it for the long term”. He also drew attention to Britain’s involvement in the fight against ISIL, which includes 900 personnel stationed in Iraq who have helped to lead 1,000 missions and 300 air strikes on ISIL targets.
The UK has recently been criticised for its defence spending by the US, as well as Tory MPs and former leaders of UK armed forces, after failing to commit to the NATO minimum defence spending of two per cent of GDP.
Despite these criticisms, Fallon stressed that the UK still is a major power in terms of military strength, he said: “We have a defence footprint in nearly half the countries of the world. Quite apart from current operations we have over 10,000 people stationed overseas, from Brunei to the Falklands, from Cyprus to Kenya.
“Few nations can match that footprint – or have the ability to respond so rapidly and, at scale, to challenges… No country in Europe is playing such a strong global role.”
