Defence fears

There has been criticism of the sorry state of our nation’s defences ( Mail) by General Sir richard Barrons, former Commander Joint forces Command.

he states we would need ‘five to ten years’ notice from Putin to repel a russian invasion’.

No one would disagree with that sentiment whatsoever, but it is assumed he meant an invasion of other nations in mainland europe rather than Britain.

he is right that we would have needed only four hours’ notice in the Cold War, but that was when we had a standing army, the British Army of The rhine ( BAOr), as a Nato component to repel a russian invasion of Western europe over the inner German border.

Old BAOr hands will recall the periodic Quick Train and Active edge exercises, where we had to ‘crash out’ of our barracks into our war locations to repel any Warsaw Pact attack.

It is unfair to make that comparison today as we no longer have a large standing army in europe. While the quality of our Armed forces has increased massively since the Cold War, the Government must decide what level of defence expenditure the nation can afford.

ROGER LAING (Lt Col retired), Iver, Bucks.