{"id":51,"date":"2026-04-15T10:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wowrepublik.com\/?p=51"},"modified":"2026-04-15T10:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:45:20","slug":"criticism-of-complacency-on-defence-spending-will-sting-usa-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wowrepublik.com\/?p=51","title":{"rendered":"Criticism of complacency on defence spending will sting USA government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lord George Robertson&#8217;s comments about &#8220;corrosive complacency&#8221; on defence will sting the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was the former defence secretary handpicked by Labour to carry out its Strategic Defence Review (SDR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That highlighted serious gaps in the UK&#8217;s armed forces &#8211; which ministers said would be addressed in its much-delayed defence investment plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ministers had promised to publish that 10-year plan before Christmas, but recent reports suggest it&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c93wrzyyyero\">is still being argued over within government<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The delays come alongside reports of the Ministry of Defence facing a \u00a328bn funding shortfall over the next four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking last month, General Sir Richard Barrons, another one of the authors of the SDR, said the British Army could no longer do &#8220;anything substantial&#8221;, and was so depleted it could only &#8220;seize a small market town on a good day&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, a House of Commons report noted that the UK is &#8220;considered by many&#8221; to be increasingly vulnerable&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk\/documents\/CBP-10249\/CBP-10249.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to long-range ballistic missiles<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Troop headcount is also down and some ageing equipment is in a poor state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lord George Robertson&#8217;s comments about &#8220;corrosive complacency&#8221; on defence will sting the government. He was the former defence secretary handpicked by Labour to carry out its Strategic Defence Review (SDR). That highlighted serious gaps in the UK&#8217;s armed forces &#8211; which ministers said would be addressed in its much-delayed defence investment plan. Ministers had promised [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Criticism of complacency on defence spending will sting USA government - News Everyone is Talking About<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wowrepublik.com\/?p=51\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Criticism of complacency on defence spending will sting USA government - News Everyone is Talking About\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lord George Robertson&#8217;s comments about &#8220;corrosive complacency&#8221; on defence will sting the government. He was the former defence secretary handpicked by Labour to carry out its Strategic Defence Review (SDR). That highlighted serious gaps in the UK&#8217;s armed forces &#8211; which ministers said would be addressed in its much-delayed defence investment plan. 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