After years of the being hollowed out and underfunded, war in Europe has refocused minds on the need to prepare for war to achieve peace. To do that requires serious investment, and the Government's pledge to of GDP this Parliament and 3% is seen by many as

As the armed forces prepare to respond to the direction of travel set by the imminent (SDR), the Express has delved into the figures to understand what the has and, crucially, what it lacks.

In the summer of 2022, General Sir Patrick Sanders walked through the lobby of Army Headquarters in Andover for the first time as Chief of the General Staff, the most senior position in the British Army.

Months earlier, Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine had turned conventional opinion on the future of modern warfare on its head, undermining claims by Boris Johnson the year before that "the days of tank warfare in Europe are over".

His task was to refocus the minds of senior officers raised through a period of small-scale operations in the desert against inferior enemies and put them on a course to deploy and win the first battle in Eastern Europe.

He pulled no punches as he delivered that message to them from the bottom of the building's staircase as lance corporals and Brigadiers spread over three floors jostled for position to listen in.

In the days, weeks and months that followed, the scale of the deficiencies in the British Army became apparent and terrifying, with Sanders later confessing that the lack of equipment often left him unable to sleep.

Over the next few years, much of the equipment that the army did possess would be donated to help 's defence, with 8 Challenger 2 tanks and 50 AS90 artillery guns among the kit donated to keep the Russian bear at bay.

What remained was an ageing fleet of vehicles, some of which had had their out-of-service dates extended multiple times, having been used as far back as the first Gulf War.

Since 2021, some of these vehicles have been retired, with Husky, Scimitar, and two thousand land rovers being consigned to the scrap heap to make way for and fund the long-awaited Ajax, the Archer artillery system, and Boxer, the modular fighting vehicle that can be configured to serve a range of purposes from a fighting vehicle to an ambulance.

Other deficiencies, including basic ammunition and mortar rounds, have since been addressed, although the exact numbers in storage remain classified.

Recruitment and retention

The army, like the RAF and Royal Navy, is in the midst of a soldier recruitment crisis, with a lack of clear purpose, archaic medical standards, high-profile cases of abuse and changing employment expectations of Gen-Z all contributing towards a difficult recruitment landscape.

Since 2010, the army has managed to beat its recruitment target for soldiers once, in the year following the pandemic. This century, it has beaten it just three times, post-, in the wake of 9/11 and following the financial crash of 2008.

A decline in soldier numbers, which has seen the size of the army fall to lows not seen since the Napoleonic wars, has also been a conscious decision taken by army leaders in an attempt to modernise the force and harness the power of technology and the benefits of being agile.

The army currently has just 74,400 trained soldiers, down from more than 80,000 in 2022. To put this figure in context, 's offensive to retake the Kursk region consisted of a similarly sized force.

Last week's Strategic Defence Review (SDR) sought to halt the decline in service personnel, which has resulted in large part from a concerted effort by the MOD to reduce the size of the force.

Its method of delivery is said to be twofold. An investment in serving personnel to address issues fuelling termination of service, such as poor-quality housing, has been combined with an enhanced focus on the cadet force and the role of education in selling the benefits of a military career to school-aged children.

The British Army is roughly organised into three arms: combat, combat support and combat service support.

Combat arms are the tip of the spear. They are tasked with closing with and destroying the enemy, and all functions of the army work to support them in doing so. Comprised of 32 Infantry battalions, 11 Armoured Corps battalions, and 7 Army Air Corps battalions, they account for around 25% of the army's size, with just under 20,000 soldiers serving.

Combat support arms have specialist functions that provide skills and abilities that complement and enhance those held by the combat arms. From engineers who can breach obstacles to signalers who inform the battlespace and artillery who can sit behind the infantry and suppress the enemy, they serve across the battlespace from the frontlines to the rear echelons.

Combat service support enables the army's activity by providing sustainment to the force. Within it are logisticians who ensure that soldiers can deploy and be maintained, medics who keep the force healthy, HR professionals who ensure soldiers get paid, and electrical and mechanical engineers who service equipment and vehicles.

The SDR makes one thing very clear, the British Army sees the future battlefields as being very different to those that have gone before.

Over the course of the next decade, the MOD will aim to increase the lethality of the army by 10% by investing in and training soldiers in the use of drones, developing cyber capabilities and harnessing the power of AI to have a military effect on the enemy in multiple domains.

Crucially, Defence Secretary John Healey has vowed to begin launching "sub-threshold" cyber attacks, attacks on adversaries below the threshold which would lead to war, in response to 90,000 such attacks being directed at Britain over the last two years.

Such capabilities will be developed as part of a "NATO first" strategy, ensuring that soldiers are better prepared to seamlessly use key capabilities alongside our NATO allies.

Over the next decade, the British Army will develop a new way of fighting known as "20-40-40".

The plans involve launching kamikaze and first-person-view drones, which will make up 40% of the force, at the enemy in the first instance of an operation.

Heavy armour, such as Challenger 3 tanks, will follow, making up around 20% of the force.

The third stage of battle will see heavier, long-range precision missiles and more durable drones make up the final 40%.

Whilst the SDR set out the strategic picture for the army over the next decade, it remains unclear just how easily Britain would move its forces to an eastern European battlefield. It has regularly exercised moving Brigades of around 3,000 soldiers at a time, but moving a larger formation, potentially through military-contested or vulnerable areas, would prove a daunting task for military planners.