The UK’s Military Crisis Explained 

Just a heads up - an error has been pointed out to us at 4:09 in the video. The caption on the graph should read "UK's Historical Defence Expenditure as a % of GDP". We're sorry for this mistake.

As a Finnish person, i'm VERY confused on why you would outsource recruitment of military personel.

Some issues to consider: 1. It used to take 3 months to join the army. With Capita, it now takes 15-21 months. People grow up / move on. They keep losing people’s files, ruining dreams/prospective careers. They also have an overly defensive application of medical standards - there is no shortage of applicants but they reject so many people for say having had a collar bone fracture at aged 5 to protect themselves from getting sued. 2. Pay - pay freeze / low pay. Speaks for itself. 3. The old pension has been scrapped - was a big motivator for keeping in good people who had young children. People were forcibly moved on to it in 2015 to a worse one. Fewer people are staying on as a result. Why stay in a job that requires so many personal sacrifices (family time/your body/best years) if it doesn’t even provide security? 4. Housing - mouldy etc. 5. Civilian contractors. For things like food - the quality is awful - just gives you constipation. You are no longer guaranteed three hot meals a day - imagine what that does to morale. Also on quality - Imagine school food before Jamie Oliver but served with baked beans and frozen chips.

4:22 - Damn South Africans not pulling their weight in NATO.

It's not about the amount of money, It's about what it's spent on .... huge volumes are spent on middle management and sub-contractors rather than actual in-house knowledge and skill.

I recently left the British army and I can tell you that unless there is a drastic change in culture in the armed forces then personnel will continue to leave in droves. Leadership at all levels is just poor and the offer is not what it used to be. People joining today are nowhere near compensated enough for the sacrifices you have to make in your personal life and the quality of life for those serving and their families is just not good enough.

As a German I am very pleased that we are not the only country where everything is going downhill at mach2

Gosh privatising recruitment hasnt worked 🤔 Shocker

The easiest way to explain the answer to any "why is the UK in crisis" question is: - About 40 years ago, it was decided that maximizing share value was the one and only goal of Government - All economic decisions have been made with MSV in mind: Everything that could be sold off was, and any commitment to maintaining strategic infrastructure was sealed with pinky swears - 40 years later, the rot caused by point #2 has finally reached the foundations

I served onboard HMS Argyll, and i have just left the navy. Its a vicious circle. The more people leave the more strain and stress it puts on other serving members as the forces try and stick to all their commitments no matter what bending the rules as and when it suits them. You used to have bonuses at the 5, 8 and 12 year mark to encourage you to stay in, the pension has been slash hugely. The good experiences are few and far between. The treatment is awful, the good blokes leave that can make something of themselves and the shite ones stay too scared to leave. The forces, now takes and asks too much whilst giving too little in return.

I tried to join the RAF when I was 18 - it was a nightmare trying to figure out the status of my application. At the recruitment office, the officer pretty much implied that they were desperate for soldiers and told me my application would be fast-tracked due to my background at military academy. It took six months after that for me to even be approved for a medical evaluation, another six months before I spoke to anyone from the RAF again. By that point I had a full-time job, recently promoted and with a new gf. 18 months after I first applied, I got a call from the recruitment office telling me I had some upcoming forms to fill out, and I told them I was withdrawing my application. Life had moved on.

Capita has its hands in far too many of the UK Govt’s institutions I would be very interesting to see how many their shareholders are Tory Mates or Donors! Capita not only do all recruitment for the MOD but employs and runs the health assessment for the DWP and other services that should be vital and kept within the public sector!

At one point in my life I was interested in joining the reserves as a soldier. I was tuned off because the recruitment process - for a part time soldier - would take over a year. That's just the recruitment, they said that after I had completed this massive binder of tasks which take about a year to complete I would then be eligible for training. I did not want to spend the next year of my life jumping through hoops and ended up not taking my application any further than the 1st stage. I wonder how many other people have this experience and how many more people would end up joining the military if the recruitment process was done in a more reasonable amount of time.

The younger generation are very unlikely to fight for a country in which their voices aren’t listened to (Brexit, unaffordable house prices, ridiculous student loans etc.)

5% payrise when inflation is at 15% is actually a 10% paycut. So those angry at their crap wages get a 10% paycut which will just push even more out

Why would you compare UK military expenditure, less costs of maintaining nuclear weapons, to French military expenditure without reducing the French figure by the amount they spend maintaining nuclear weapons? Utterly meaningless.

What I gather from TLDR reporting of Britian Everything is on fire, everyone is fucked and the union will dissolve in 20 years give or take a decade

as someone who nearly joined the army i can tell you why it's failing, they throw so many hurdles before even allowing people to go in for the fitness tests (i was in limbo for 5 months) and when i was on the phone my recruiter was just subtlety rude because i wasn't drastically changing my lifestyle when i wasn't guaranteed to join 🤷

The Tories have cut the armed forces in the name of austerity, it’s their fault.

With the affects of austerity and the way they discriminately throw away perfectly capable people because of small medical inconveniences that show up on a form without even giving the applicant a chance to prove their ability to serve at the selection and development centre, its no wonder they have no one joining they are just as much the problem as well as the economic side of the story

Saying if you 'remove the nuclear deterrent the UK spends less on it's military than France' is a ridiculous comparison, considering France spends money on its own nuclear deterrent. Comparing to literally any other European nation on the graph would have made more sense.

4:18 why is the question at the bottom about South Africa completely unrelated to the point made about British military spending?

I’m patriotic but I would never serve the armed forces just to line the pockets of defence companies and fight a pointless war in the Middle East then return home traumatised (or worse in a coffin) and ending up poor and homeless. I’d only join if there was a truly existential threat to this nation or if the British Isles were invaded (and that would never happen because of mutually assured destruction from our nuclear deterrent and neither Russia or China have the capability to even do so in the first place) It’s unsurprising that there is a shortage of people enlisting considering we are in an age where social media allows anyone to be well informed and public trust in the government is at an all time low.

Rather than encouraging people to join the army, encourage them to undertake military training. It's a much smaller commitment (easier to convince people) but as chronic procrastinators know once you take the first step the remaining thousand are easy.

I left due to pay. £50,000 is not enough for an officer in the forces with that level of responsibility

People don’t wanna fight for leaders like these

I’m a reservist. When I first tried joining up 8 years ago now, it took over six months. This was due to a medical condition from my childhood. I was initially rejected on medical grounds despite never being physically examined. After months of appeals, I was finally allowed to attend selection where I was deemed physically fit for service. One of my friends who tried to transfer to the regulars was also delayed as they confused his medical records with someone else. By the time they sorted this mess out, circumstances changed and the regulars lost an excellent potential squaddie.

When considering pay, I think you also need to look at the private security companies recruiting experienced soldiers at much higher rates than the regular army - with all the pressures that families are under, having a significantly higher income might be deemed as necessary to maintain it - plus following the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the regular army doesn’t have that much of a higher reputation than mercenaries

4:20 im assuming that text there is wrong lol

4:40 small nitpick, there is no "the" before "HMS" when saying the name of a ship. This is because if you spell it out it would be, "the His Majesty's Ship" which doesn't make sense grammatically.

Some corrections to what you’ve said: Hms prince of wales was on 30 days notice to sail she sailed in 8 days and is now at sea on nato exercises. She was meant to have sailed in 7 initially but delayed it by a day. So getting down from 30 days to 8 is an accomplishment. Hms Westminster and Argyll have not been officially confirmed to decommission as the mod has not announced anything that is just from a piece that was written by the telegraph.

The British military has been facing real terms budget cuts almost every year since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. After 35 years of this how is it any surprise that the UK's military capabilities are a joke next to what they should be? When you look at the wages you will quickly see that the miniscule budget has taken a toll on recruitment because the wages offered to military officers in no way reflects the amount of work and effort involved.

I'm a veteran with Australia and had 11 years experience. I even have on the ground experience in Ukrainian. Now I live in the UK and volunteered with the reserves and they said they weren't interested. Interesting as to why they would not want a reservist with that type of experience. Something is broken if we're in a 'pre-war' world.

Oh, it would be CAPITA! They gave the recruiting contract to that shower? No surprise then that recruitment's a mess. Obviously, it's CAPITA, of course it's rubbish.

The Tories tried to save money by hiring a private company for recruiting, but it backfired and ended up wasting more taxpayer money. Now, some Tories are complaining because things didn't go well.

You cant compare UK spending after taking out nuclear deterrence to france without taking out their nuclear deterrence 😂

14 billion on trident to begin with let alone all the maintenance! Then it just plops into the sea! So good to see our 2.3 percent of our GDP is going to be well spent!

This is factually incorrect. HMS Prince of Wales sailed and has been the flagship of the NATO exercise for a month now. She is currently in the North Sea.

Tried to join the Navy in 2020, gave up after 15 months of deferrals. It's kind of a relief to see so many people with similair experiences to myself as at the time having to withdraw the application that i'd jumped through so many hoops for left me feeling quite low.

Is that comparison of expenditure ( 4:00 ) with France correct? Were the costs of the french nuclear program substracted as well in the comparison, because it isn't shown in the chart? One might assume that it is similar expensive than the british program?

I believe at the source of the issue in UK domestic politics is the fact that the state has yielded too much to private companies and now has a smaller income. The state and government is a symbol of responsibility not just authority. How can the government be expected to pay for everything we expect it to if they state doesn’t get a large enough income on its own?? It was a mistake to shrink the state.

Couple of points, hms prince of Wales was not broken down this time the delay in departure was simply the need to get it ready which was actually done pretty fast, and tidal conditions. Also the trident missles are joint stock with the usa so that is a fail for them too (we just put our own warheads on them). With regards to the point about the uk defence expenditure minus nuclear being less than France it should be noted that their budget also includes their own nuclear deterant. Could also have mentioned the MOD is further limited on budget by the absurd inclusion of pensions in the figures. Otherwise bang on and something that needs to climb up the public priorities with the world we now live in.

Thanks for having the ad right at the end.

4:00 NOTE: The NATO 2% guideline INCLUDES all aspects of military including nukes. So to _remove_ the Nukes from UK budget and then compare to France (which has 290 nuke warheads) whose figure INCLUDES nukes is unfair. Increasingly TLDR reporting is showing obvious and wide inconsistencies. Such a shame.

I plan to attempt to join the reserves once I've finished my studies but one thing I've found that might be hindering recruitment is actually the medical requirements, things like autism or OCD can bar you, even if it's mild and would allow you to serve in other nations. Same with mental health things, I understand barring people if they are currently on antidepressants but the current rules are basically if you see a therapist or even if you have a history of seeing one for any reason you're barred.

People in the west have the wrong idea that nuclear is out of question. Cold War NATO policy was 100% clear on this: if the USSR invaded, NATO would ABSOLUTELY fire tactical nuclear weapons first. I have no idea why the public perception is that it wouldn't. Ask any weapons officer.

Capita were awful and would take months to even post a form for a recruits medical check but at least they aren't doing to intake anymore

I wan in the army from 2008 to 2014 and back then we had massive retention problems. I imagine the less people you have and ask to do more the worse retention you have. A benefit I got was they did offer 10k over 3 years for you to transfer to the reserves but most people left after those three years. The whole things a mess.

You can't compare UK budget without nuclear detterent with France spending without also taking out France nuclear detterent.

We are all trapped in games and spending of the older generations. I have resigned to the fact that some change will only happen when the oldies bite the dust and younger generations get control of power, which again is a slow process. So just focus on your own happiness and that of your loved ones

THNKS FOR THE INTERESTING INTEL.... MUCH OBLIGED!👍👍🙏🙏🌹🌹💐💐

UK is saddled with a huge middle management bureaucracy and an unhealthy tendency to outsource everything (Tories padding out thier own pockets effectively). This black hole of middle managers and consultants has become a political force unto itself and it resists being changed no matter what.

The words crisis and emergency would have more impact if they weren’t used for everything.

I think an overlooked issue in this video is reports of how toxic the culture in the military is compared to other industries young people can go into. A friend of mine recently quit the Navy having described it as an "old boys club" with rampant homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.

Most of the advertisements for joining the army are pretty much based around belonging and having friends. Which, A, you don't have to be sent half way round the world with ballistic plates for, and B, should go without saying rather than being a selling point.

At 3:55 you say if the cost of the Nuclear Deterrent is removed from the equation then Britain spends less than France. But France also has a nuclear deterrent requiring 1 of 4 submarines to be at sea at all times- exactly like the UK. So surely they must be paying a similar amount? What you're actually doing is providing an unfair comparison.

At this point what is not in crisis in the UK under the last 14 years of Tory government.

EVERYTHING in britain is broken!

Members of the UK forces have been saying for years that this would happen. I served from 2001-2017, any suggestions/complaints made to senior officers were met with 'If you don't like it, sign off.' But this was literally the heart of the issues we were having, not enough people to do the job. The more leave, the more strain put on those left behind, the more fed up the blokes get and the more likely it is they'll just sign off as well. A vicious circle that eventually leads to ships being left inoperational. Well, looks like that attitude has done no favours for anyone. I loved my time in the mob, but I wouldn't go back in a million years. You're treated like a child. The rank/rating structure is outdated. You have people in the jobs for years, know it inside out, have wives and children, being told what to do by some snotty little scrote with a history degree because he's been to Hogwarts and thinks he knows the world. The pay is poor for the time you spend away/working. The world has changed and the forces won't compete with it, why sign on for £24k a year to spend 9 months away from your friends and family when you can get a decent job in a growing sector like IT, get paid £30k+ and be able to plan holidays and life in general? You used to get a decent pension out of it, which they changed to a worse version in 2005 (but you had the option to stay on the '78 one) to save money, and then again in 2015, this time they forced you to change. The recruitment process is rubbish now, when I signed up, you went to a recruitment office and spoke to a senior NCO about what you wanted to do and how you'd be able to do it. Now it's outsourced to a rubbish civvy company. Housing is shite, just google anything about military housing and you'll see why. The culture has changed massively. It used to be a lifestyle, you'd join up, make mates for life, see the world. Now it's just a job.

MOD has 60,000 civilians working for them, more than the navy and RAF combined

Topic for a short video maybe: “what’s working well in Britain”. Won’t take long

The political system in UK is rotten 😂😂😂😂

Young people aren't idiots. Shocker!

To have let decades of experience in naval aviation go to waste is, in my opinion, criminal. As for the recruitment crisis, it does not only affect Great Britain, it affects all Western democracies. Even in France we have this kind of problem, but when you see a soldier who risks his life starting with the same salary as a town hall secretary snug behind her desk, you begin to understand the problem. Comparing England to France is objectively not a good idea, why? Since the end of the Second World War, France has tried to be independent in terms of both nuclear and conventional armaments, to do this it has to maintain its research and production capacities for its most important weapons, which has not been the case. unfortunately Great Britain did not integrate too much with the USA. (We gave up our ability to build our own infantry rifle for example, but we no longer have battalions of several million men either, so this was deemed "less" important). One of the air groups of the two British aircraft carriers is composed of US Marines. After the publication of an ad on Linekedin to recruit an admiral commanding the British SSBNs left a lot of people on their butts. And our military budget is recorded and will increase by 500 billion euros over the next 5 years and this is "protected" even if a new government comes tomorrow it will not be able to touch this money. We must not lie to ourselves, in France we see the concerns of the British armies, our allies during the two world wars and many other “interventions” as a catastrophe.

The Brittish militairy is not broken. The Brittish militairy is BROKE.

Its because india has stopped giving aid to uk.

David Cameron then prime minister signed off on allowing the nuclear deterrent to be included in the defence budget where as since its inception was a separate budget

The Trident test a firing test from a sub, which was successful. There wasnt a target, it was only a submerged firing exercise. Its lazy reporting to say it was a failure when you dont know the aim.

4:12 “is South Africa heading in the right or wrong direction”😂 some one messed up the graphic for a chart about overall UK military spending since 1970

Reminds me a lot of the US military lol. Tried to join thr Air Force twice but didnt cause of medical history. My brothet did though. His stories are really shocking. He is having a decent time thankfully. But the military is a really bad part of life for many young people. The incompetence is amazing honestly

This whole charade belongs in an episode of Yes Prime Minister

All I want is to learn the trade of the infantry but unfortunately I was medically rejected. I could see private armies which actually recruit and train civilians becoming quite popular.

4:25 "Is South Africa going in the right or wrong direction?" Looks like the editor has been copy/pasting the After Effects project file and forgot to update the title. 😂

WHOLE UK is BROKEN not just f..g millitary

My thoughts would be 1) spoil removal to avoid dumpers tracking back and forth 2) before becoming a heritage site used for removing cut stones for local building works 3) used to bring in material to rebuild which I believe the Victorians like to do

Probably a good idea for the British Crown to not try picking fights and starting wars with Russia.

Nothing will solve the recruitment crisis. Your chance of getting in is about 10%, if you are willing to wait over a year. Very few quality candidates will wait that long when the private sector will happily take them on. The primary reason is that most people that have visited a GP are no longer considered fit for service.

It’s just embarrassing, absolutely embarrassing

Im from the UK and this has received so much backlash that the UK government went back on it due to so many people simply refusing constription myself included!

I've also been told that part of the retention crisis in the last year is due to a growing number of personnel leaving the army to fight in Ukraine. The numbers are not huge but they disproportionately affect infantry and special forces, but the MoD cant acknowledge it due to political and diplomatic sensitivities.

I find that the main reason I don't want to work for the Military is because form experience in the cadets I just don't have the motivation to maintain the uniform or fitness required. If I knew of roles where I could completely avoid both of those I might go for it, but no such thing really exists.

Think about what young people realise they would be fighting for in the army. Why would I put up with awful conditions see the friends I make in the military die and go to war for my landlord who takes 80% of my pay for mouldy bed room in a over populated HMO. Lots has to change in this country before young people even consider the idea of dying for it

Bernard, we have a magic wand - Trident. Nobody understands anything about it, except that it will cost £15 billion, which means it must be wonderful, magical. All we have to do is write a cheque and then we can all relax. - Sir Humphrey Appleby

It's almost like consistently reducing the defence budget, threatening job security of soldiers and scrapping large amounts of equipment was (shock horror!) a really really bad idea

Culture plays a big part in recruiting. Right now people see the UK government shovelling millions of pounds a day into facilitating mass migration, they are protecting energy companies and suppliers so they can maintain above-market costs for energy and food, there is a cost of living crisis, and local councils organise priority housing for the homeless putting immigrants at the top of the waiting list, and military veterans at the bottom. Seriously, if you are a homeless veteran you will NEVER get given social housing, but someone getting off a boat at Dover is automatically provided with money and housing the same day. Put simply, when a country is mocking its own people, they should not expect those people to go out and lay down their lives to protect a system that shafts them. In last month at least five people have been arrested for public order offences, for merely carrying a Union Jack. They shouldnt expect people to die thousands of miles away in a ditch, carrying a flag they will get arrested for flying at home.

just 4 months ago i applied got contacted by a recruiter in 3 days but the first word out of his mouth where it may take atleast 6 months to get you in. excuse me? 6 months? ive already got a full time job and fuck knows where i'll be in 6 months from now. and this was just getting me into basic. not to mention the army portal is about 20 years out of date

The whole UK has sunk into crisis thanks to Tory government incompetence. A massive amount of UK military spending is wasted on a bloated Ministry of Defence, the MoD are civil servants and in 2022 they numbered over 57,000. This is almost as large as the Royal Navy and RAF combined!!

The big headline engineering failures sound bad but really they are within the realm of expected for that kind of thing. Recruitment/job prospects/career opportunities vs other options for someone capable of military work, the pay flat out and political optics (views among people not media going on about the above), those are the real issues of course.

France has a nuclear deterrence of four submarines too, so subtracting the cost of our nuclear deterrence from our defence spending but not the cost of the french nuclear deterrence from the French spending is disingenuous. Also "Is South Africa Heading in the right or wrong direction" under the graph of British defence spending as a percentage against time @4:13 is kind of shoddy. I don't think you are a reliable source of news if you can't do basic research or title your graphs properly.

hey TLDR there is an error at 4:18, your graph says "Is South Africa Heading in the Right or Wrong Direction?"

It's an easy answer. No one wants to fight for an economic zone, instead of a country.

Umm, lads, was the graph @4:08 supposed to say what it says about South Africa?

Do you think a reform of some of some of the medical screening requirements for the armed forces would help boost numbers? I ask as I know many people deemed medically unfit by the Armed Forces Occupational Health, despite being fully capable in other aspects or specific jobs within the military. These shortfalls are including conditions such as food allergies

As soon as you hear 'The HMS', you know they have no clue about the UK Armed Forces except some stats.

3:58 It's not fair to compare the UK's budget without nuclear deterrence to France's budget with its own nuclear deterrence.

In the age of sail, were given a upfront payment and sailors earned more than the average wage, had better food than on land (for the average person) and the opportunity of prize money making them a lot of cash. In the 1990s you had a healthy post career pension and good accomodation. Now you have nothing.

Is there a SINGLE thing in the UK that is actually funded properly?

I'm confused - at 3:50 when comparing UK defence spending (without nuclear weapons as 1.75%) to France's almost 2%, this doesn't take into account the fact that France also has nuclear weapons which it presumably also spends some of its budget on? It would be much clearer to compare UK defence budget without nuclear weapons spending to France's defence budget without nuclear weapons spending which I'm guessing would show that we still spend more than France does with that taken into account.

as a canadian I'm a little bit happy that we're not alone in this struggle.

i remember i applied to the airforce in 2019 and i got rejected because i had been prescribed a steroid cream by a doctor in the last 3 years. I applied to the army back in 2015 I also was declined at medical because i had an inhaler when i was 10 ( i was 21 at the time of applying). They told me to reapply the next year so I did and i got declined this time because I had a bit of dry skin on my face and it was classed as an "active skin condition". Its almost impossible to get in if youve even spoken to a doctor in the last 15 years they see it as a liability that they have to pay for your treatments/ get sued for medical negligence if you get in with a condition and it gets worse from working with them. I think if something in your records to them is a "oh i dunno about this" they should phone you and get more info not just a flat out decline and if needed get you in for an actual in person assessment and then if they think ah its alright really its only a small thing they should be able to give you a wavier with both of you signing it to say yeah x is a small issue but it shouldn't effect duties and you agree not to sue or have them pay for treatments.