The total number of UK Armed Forces ships, tanks, aircraft and more revealed 

the ships are US too

it urked me as well

Be good if some staff in Forces News had actually served 🤦

Thought I was the only one that noticed.

Drones can take tanks out like there's no tomorrow. I wouldn't worry to much about how many tanks we have. We need Aircraft Drones and a bigger Royal Navy. And are army has the very best of the best.

Yea conscipe the mod into the army you will have 120 .000 😅😅😅

I know of one senior RN civil servant, based in Abbeywood who laughingly stated: "I get paid a ton of money for foing nothing. I spend all day reading books!"

@mikebarrett5345 Britain is being destroyed on purpose people have the power to reverse it but they won't.

@@mikebarrett5345 Britain is being destroyed on purpose.

@@mikebarrett5345 Britain is being destroyed on purpose.

Yeah I don't understand how we maintain such a small Royal Navy with the 5th biggest Miliary budget meanwhile the Italian Navy has similar numbers with like 40% less Budget and not only that but their new-ish Bergamini class frigates cost half of the Type 26 frigate and still does an excellent job. I honestly hope we build more Type 31 frigates as its a cheaper option but it still packs a punch if they fit it correctly. We're an island nation, our navy should be our biggest strength and we also need to invest heavily into drones.

You would'nt take them on though ?

​@@AuriumLarkeitaly does not have nuclear strike capability. You don't even want to begin understanding how expensive nuclear weapons are

😊​@@AuriumLarke

@@thepeacockk we spend hundreds of billions on nuclear weapons yet we only have one method platform - the sub. And only one on patrol at any one time. We have No nuclear missiles in silos or nuclear tipped cruise missiles nor any air dropped nukes for the F35 or nuclear munitions for our surface fleet. instead the U.K. has just one submarine on patrol at any one time lurking in the Atlantic. In a war, If the Russians found our deterrent submarine, and dropped nuclear depth charges from aircraft above, before we could fire off our trident missiles then the entire deterrent system is irrelevant and redundant. Despite its cost. Tens of billions a year are spent on nukes, Yet we still can only field one submarine - just ONE ! with 40 warheads on board, each warhead 15 times more powerful than Hiroshima. As we only have one submarine on patrol at any one time and another preparing for a patrol there are only two submarines armed with nukes available for war. Two submarines can provide a maximum warhead count of 80 hydrogen bombs which in general nuclear war, we can fire at Russia in anger. So if the British lone submarines in the North Atlantic remain undiscovered and learn one day that the U.K. has been destroyed with nuclear weapons then from beyond the grave The U.K. can send a volley of 80 hydrogen bombs at every major city in Russia which on paper kills 100 million Russians in just a few hours. Rendering Russia destroyed.

it is a good thing . the uk post ww2 record have been abysmal

Not really, it's because of money - just like every other nation that isn't a dictatorship.

@@FinsburyPhil The amount of money they get is decided by Politicians. They are also supposed to set the conditions for growth and prosperity. They fail constantly and make cuts to the armed forces as a result.

Vanguard tried to launch trident ICBM twice, failed twice. The latest failure happened just two weeks ago, with Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on board the HMS Vanguard, but we still failed. I don't think UK nuclear deterrence is really reliable at the moment.

@@thejeffinvade they really need to find the point of failure - the US have had 191 test firings of Trident missiles with a failure rate of less than 5%. The number of test firings by the RN is thought to be 14 with one other failure before the recent one - so a smaller sample but definitely a higher failure rate; and it probably isn't the missile itself.

that is true but they would just surrender if it kicked off so its not much use to them.

Yes, but they don't have TOP of the range kit, they have ALMOST top of the range kit made in France, employing french people. We could do that if we chose to.

That is two weeks longer than Ukraine was supposed to last. Nice point mate!!

1 HIMARS every two years is the current rate, so I think we should be okay.

@@Randomstuffs261 UK Army no longer ‘top tier fighting force’, warns US general

@@cx3929 That doesn't mean we'd last 3 weeks though mate, especially looking at how well Ukraine is doing using our kit

last 3 weeks doing what, assaulting over seas, or defending at home whilst being surround by water. In addition, war is all about supply lines, of which we dont have enough of, thats probably the real issue

Its not an exclusive problem friend; a recent report in Canada found our armed forces to be at just 46% operational readiness...out of a target of 100. We have 4 submarines and only 1 of them has ever been to sea, and it caught fire and had to be towed back. Our only naval resupply ship was taken out of service years ago. And our ammunition reserves are not much better; we'd have enough to last about 3 days if we were in a conflict and burning through it as fast as Ukraine is. (as quoted by our defence chief in a recent interview).

The 30 that are being taken out of service will be taken out of service next March, so are still in service at the moment . . . so still 137 typhoons.

@@elmodiddly I know. However, 30 new jets should be ordered to replace them to the latest Mk. However the government won't fund defence properly

The amount that are airworthy is no more than 30 per cent. The aircraft has shocking reliability, just see how many airframes the Luftwaffe have lost. These figures do not show the amount of pilots

@@steveharris5682 I recall reading an article by somebody with an engineering role in the Typhoon’s maintenance schedule development. He was horrified that it had something like one thousand differnt shapes & sizes of fasteners that regularly need removing to strip the outer skin during maintenance.

@@jjsmallpiece9234 What do you mean won fund defence we just built a brand new aircraft carrier

the problem is if you prepare too early youre easily countered, in war time we have the resources to develop a suitable counter

It's OK though, they sold a lot of it to the USA. They're our pals.

and with our industries, we dont own our water, electic, gas or steel... its all been sold abroad to the french and alike

Spot on.

Vanguard tried to launch trident ICBM twice, failed twice. In the the latest failure two weeks ago, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on board the HMS Vanguard, but we still failed. I don't think UK nuclear deterrence is really reliable at the moment.

Case of the old chestnut battle of attrition . Foxhole is a good simulation on pc . Sure they should of thought ahead if only they had known .

Exactly. When you see some of the...I don't know what the jargon is..."acquisition times" of some of the equipment we're getting, it's ridiculous. Ohhh, we're getting some new howitzers and they should be combat ready by 2030! What?

Experts much like yourself.

You don’t really have to be an expert to know that 59 ships is hardly a navy

crowd opinion analysis is hugely accurate way of gaining insight.. that's why they let people comment

I get my infomation from those serving so i get the truth not fake news

Why thank you and know I'm an expert😤 but its good to be praised from time to time😂

One of the men is on his knees facing Mecca and another is excused duties to attend a Pride March

Absolutely correct. Frigates going into mothballs because of lack of sailors, even with WOKE recruitment going on.

Monday through Friday

Would only last a number of weeks against at best

​@@leemacdonald6533 Normal weeks or Ukrainian weeks?

America has been handling the world's problems for 50 years... that time is ending.

Yes, and we don't have enough applicants to even sustain these numbers.

despite costing more 30% of the mod equipment spend.

Yeah true, but it's better finding this out now than the moment it kicks off if it does, god forbid

Grant Shapps was on board? Well there's your problem.

@@drex8925 Actually, this is the second time the Vanguard has failed a Trident launch in the last couple of years. So the warning signs where there a while ago.

@@darthknight1 The missile was launched correctly, but then the missile itself failed in flight. Vanguard has proven itself capable of launching Trident, they just need to make Trident itself actually work.

Requires BETTER procurement!

Britain had pretty good strength immediately pre-WWI.

It's alright then, because with the armed forces like that - you ain't going anywhere.

No it didn’t we were at our stongest during those wars and it still happened

You were not fighting Russia then, let's not confuse Russia with Germany. This people have an industrial Base, we cannot keep up with. And we have chance of achieving that

That's not true!!! It's the missiles that don't work, we have no idea if the warheads work or not! Lies! Propaganda!

Conscription soon comes. Don’t worry we will make up the numbers on the front lines quick enough.

​@@mrrolandlawrencethat's great we will have men what about tanks, aircraft and ships? Takes years if mot decades just to produce a few destroyers. Months just for a couple tanks. Even if we had 10years to prepare we would struggle

@@jakeh491 Good luck trying to produce tanks within months. Modern military capital equipment has long lead times measured in years, not months. Around 1.5 to 2 years, if your production line is not running it will be even more.

@death_parade in war time, on average, it would be some every few months I'm not saying it would only take 3months to produce.

Absolutely. Running out of fairies to crew them too

They were listed 7 x Fairey Swordfish 5 x Supermarine Seafire

@@millny123 🤣 nice Tardis. Does it get good mileage?

The RN are bone idol and lazy. Work shy. Suprised they get airborne. Ask any RAF man who has worked along side the senile service

And half a dozen fancy dress bird costumes​@@millny123

The RN is using RAF airframes plus US Marines

Yeah, but that is typical across any "first class" military. It gets worse fast when you drop down a class.

I doubt that. Nowhere near as good.

@@jimmiller5600 60% is hardly typical. In the Indian Air Force, for example, 75% is considered bare minimum. It was hovering around 60-70% around a decade ago and everybody from the CAG to the media was writing obituaries for our sorry state of affairs. Thankfully it rose to 80% in 2018 during a pan-India exercise and has since hovered in the 70-80% range. Still not good enough, neighboring Pakistan manages to maintain 85% despite being a fraction of our economy and being cash strapped and needing an IMF bailout.

@@death_paradeI could find very little published on IAF readiness rates. Of interest that would indicate you may be a bit optimistic is "With most fighter squadrons set to be phased out over the next decade and a half, the IAF has made it clear that there’s no question of reviewing its sanctioned strength of 42 fighter squadrons. However, the gap between the current strength and the target strength is somewhat greater than it appears. This is because despite the IAF maintaining a fleet strength of 31 squadrons on paper, the number is lower in reality, since the availability of some of the fighter types is less than 50%, due to serviceability issues and non-availability of spare parts.".

@@jimmiller5600 Google Exercise Gagan Shakti. Happened in 2018 and is again set to happen this year. Last time they demonstrated an 80% serviceability rate in the exercise despite a very high tempo of operations, with some jets like the Tejas IOC variant logging upto 6 sorties per day. Since then, several older airframes like the MiG-27 and MiG-21 have been retired and replaced by new airframes like the Rafale and Tejas Mk1 FOC variant. So very likely that the serviceability rates are up again. Last time a CAG report stated IAF serviceability rate at 50% was back in 2015. The fighter squadron strength falling to 31 from 42 is indeed a major and often discussed problem, but is partly ameliorated by India inducting something that it didn't have back when that 42 squadron figure was first mooted: A fully network centric pan-India IADS with medium and long range SAMs and even a two-tier BMD interceptor shield that was previously missing.

Licens produce CV 90, Archer and Jas 39 E. Cheap and good quality.

As long as its with a 3rd world country then we are good 👍

Yes, but the complexity is how much in what particular situation.

only against poorer nations

@@zangrygrapes4571 so everyone but allies and China?

@@zangrygrapes4571 how dare they be poor!

Some of those will be admirals barges and fisheries protection vessels. Probably survey vessels too. 😂

US pop is 342 million. Not 400 million.

USA population I'm sure is not 400 million

The USA is a completely different military animal and has a large number of aircraft due to the roles that USA play across the world. They are much more activem militarily speaking, than a lot of other countries The UK are part of a NATO force that shares capabilities with many of it's European allies, as well as America, which is why the UK does not need so many assets.

@@elmodiddly so you didn't learn anything from the events in 1982. Britain needs to be strong without NATO.

Agreed. The USMC is almost as big as the entire British military and probably has more aircraft, ships and armour at it’s disposal. We can’t just have kit and equipment though. It would be useless without the people to operate it. The US military is part of the American identity. They’re proud of their military. It’s not the same in the UK, completely different attitude towards the military and service personnel. Having read many of the comments recently about conscription and people being forced to join up because of a war, you could tell by the majority of comments that too many British people are spineless and have no pride in the country. Again, complete polar opposite to the US.

What ships are you talking about?

@@jamesflaherty59 all the ships that have been scraped over the last few years for just in case

We will stand with you in any Battle My Canadian Brother you and your Beautiful Country 🇨🇦 🇬🇧

@@rhysblackwell2065battle against who??? Canada’s own government is the peoples biggest threat

Take out your PM first! He is your biggest threat.

But we don't have big brother Uncle Sam to protect us as a neighbour! 😅

@@eyeofthetiger6002 true, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if we didn't have ALL our eggs in that basket. At least the UK has it's own nuclear deterrent.

Just like the UN, never has so much money being paid to so many civil servants for doing so little!

So true the usa are lol at us.

Vanguard tried to launch trident ICBM twice, failed twice. In the the latest failure two weeks ago, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps on board the HMS Vanguard, but we still failed. I don't think UK nuclear deterrence is really reliable at the moment.

There is something far more sinister going on than bean counters ! Its called "the long march"

@@thejeffinvadewas that the test launch that accidentally went towards the US coastline?

​@@matthewbaynham6286i think the missile might have been hijacked.. flight programming hacked..

Maybe they should hire you?

So oyu sound like ALL of the world's defence experts "Ukraine will last a week at the most!" Here we are two years three months later and Ukraine is still going strong. This is the point of Alliances.

@@TheB1nary Really? He knows nothing!!

@@thetruthhurts7675 Ik alliance are there but I am thinking from the perspective of no one helping britain it is on it self

@@TheB1nary Oh yes ready to serve would you like to be my assistant

The `limited manpower` is very top heavy. Far too many senior officers. 1 Air Marshall for every 4 combat aircraft in the RAF & 1 Admiral for every blue water combat ship in the RN! The Army has a Battalions worth (660 people) of senior officers above the rank of Lt Colonel and therefore not regarded as combat officers. They also have a whole Battalions worth of expensively uniformed musicians to play in the 7 marching bands the taxpayer funds. Leaner and meaner would be more capable & better value.

@@ukpitts Don't forget the cooks :)

@@ukpitts History has proven your statement incorrect. In peacetime you have a limited budget. You hang on to skilled officers with decades of experience. When war comes you draft strong young men and hand them rifles. Six months later you have a new rank & file being led by experienced officers.

@@jimmiller5600 All good in theory, but the new ‘rank & file’ are best if not led from behind a desk. What they need is a strong Major down to 2nd Lt cohort of experienced officers & a motivated NCO cadre. They will never see, let alone speak to the battalion of stuffed shirts swanning about in the MOD.

@@ukpitts Fine. Please explain how you are going to cycle those junior officers and provide experience if you're not at war. That's why the older officers are there. This is called reality, not some fantastic level of perfection.

How many militarily insignificant islands have fought a tank war? Asking for a friend.

@@allancopland1768you are right tanks and ships are obsolete now tbh. The drone war and artillery war in 🇺🇦 have proved that. So the uk military is not just small it’s outdated too

😂😂😂

That's the Jackal. A HMT. Designed to be light and mainly for reconnaissance. It replaces the land rover. And is designed to make landmine hits more survivable. The open front isn't unusual for fast reconnaissance vehicles.

@@sshep86 the Ukraine war has shown us that drone hits from above would be a bigger problem.

@@Dingdangdoo A thin roof won't save you from a drone attack anyways.

@@death_parade a helmet wont protect you from a direct bullet either but we don't take them off, it's about shrapnel, ricochets and limiting lethal fire.

Some old books on eBay/Amazon by a Charles Heyman worth getting. Have one from 1994 titled The Royal Air force a pocket guide. I think in 1990 we had around 700 combat aircraft of various types, Tornadoes, Buccaneers, Harriers, Sea harriers, Jaguars. Etc He did ones for the army & Royal navy. A few compiled ones of all three services too.

In the mid seventies BAOR was 55,000 strong, full regular army strength was around 170,000, 900 Chieftain MBT, (600 of which were based in Germany), RAF was approx 115,00 and the RN stood at approx 96,000. Then you had the TAVR which was 65,000 in number and the Regular Reserve , made up of ex squaddies that could be called up in time of crisis.

Royal Navy had about 73 surface warships, 3 carriers, and nearly 30 submarines

@@thewomble1509 Don't forget the then 420 MK2 & mk3 Challengers in service with 1st, 3rd an 4th armoured divisions, who operated the Chieftains in service alongside them. The UK has around 1200 total but just over 400 were in various states due to being replaced by Challengers.

@@BroadHobbyProjects I was talking about the mid seventies. No Chally's in service for another decade at least!

How tf ~ 100 modern ships is hardly anything?

@@oleksii000Only about 19 are actually surface warships, compare that to 1990 when we had around 73 surface warships

Stop posting doom and gloom on RU-vid then and go see your MP! These people who you "vote" for (I bet you didn't thus the complaints here) are the people who control the purse strings.

It's almost as if we were here, say 85 years ago.

Just as long as its a small 3rd world country then we are OK 👍

​@@leemacdonald6533 many so called third world countries is more powerful tha you

We don't. The carriers are usually in port with major problems. The F22 has never reached its original design brief. The Typhoon has shocking reliability. Soldiers buy their own brown boots. Chronic wastes of money from an oversized MOD HQ and civil service which is both corrupt and inept.

British Army towed howitzer inventory is around 126 L118 105mm towed howitzers. Comparable to India's BSF (Border Security Force) that fields 140 Indian Field Guns (based on British L118 105mm towed howitzers). As an aside, Canadians field neither SPGs nor MLRS. Canadian Army has a total artillery inventory of 29 M777 howitzers (155mm) spread across two Artillery Battalions. Comparable to India's ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) that fields around 54 Indian Field Guns (105mm).

You gave everythink away to Ulkraine and Russia blew it up for you. Now you are caught with your hands in your pockets.

All the information is in the public domain anyway ...no secrets being given away here.

Widely public

Important for the british public to know what's going on with the military that's meant to be able to protect us

HMS Ocean sold to Brazil Feb 2018. HMS Albion in reduced readiness (mothballed) with a skeleton crew.Tornado retired 2019

Tornados were scrapped after being ruined flying so many missions in Libya. Get with the mission

34 Wildcats are on order for reconnaissance, light transport and force protection

Plus the 7 they kept weren't the best for the job. All political.

Correct. All covered in "Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs" years ago.

UK miliary budget was £45.9 billion in 2021/22. It's unbelievable how so much money is spent with so little to show for it.

Most of it is spent paying consultants in the private sector. If we go to war with Russia we will be destroyed

Those figures are inflated. The uk includes mi6 and all intelligence gathering agencies as well as the MOD and other non-military agencies to make it look like we're spending more than we are

The others aren't far off 😂

It has probably about 90 serviceable combat aircraft

Same with most navies... you dont have all your ships out at once. I cannot believe you thought that happened! 🤣