Today’s announcement brings the total UK military support since the outbreak of war to £2.3 billion – more than any country other than the United States.
According to this press release, the UK will provide another £1 billion of military support to Ukraine, the Prime Minister has announced at the NATO Leaders’ Summit today.
“This uplift to funding will herald a new phase in the international community’s support to Ukraine. It will go towards capabilities including sophisticated air defence systems, uncrewed aerial vehicles, innovative new electronic warfare equipment and thousands of pieces of vital kit for Ukrainian soldiers.
It represents the first step in enabling Ukraine to go beyond their valiant defence against the illegal Russian invasion to mounting offensive operations against Russian ground forces in order to restore Ukrainian sovereignty.”
Support so far includes more than 5,000 NLAW anti-tank missiles made in Northern Ireland, long-range multiple launch rocket systems, artillery systems, including 155mm self-propelled guns, and rapid design and production of short to medium-range persistent loitering munitions by a UK start-up company.
Last week the Prime Minister also announced the UK was offering a comprehensive new training programme to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, helping them potentially to train 10,000 Ukrainian troops in the space of a few months. The UK is no stranger to doing this, in 2015 the UK launched Operation Orbital which saw the UK train more than 22,000 Ukrainian personnel from 2015 until the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The skills taught by British forces to Ukrainian troops during the seven-year programme enabled Ukrainian forces to launch a ferocious defence against Russia’s invasion.
The UK’s support to Ukraine represents the highest rate of UK military spending on a conflict since the height of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, say the MoD.
Speaking at a special meeting of NATO leaders addressed by President Zelenskyy yesterday the Prime Minister called on allies to step up their support to provide the strategic resilience Ukraine needs.
The Prime Minister said:
“Putin’s brutality continues to take Ukrainian lives and threaten peace and security across Europe. As Putin fails to make the gains he had anticipated and hoped for and the futility of this war becomes clear to all, his attacks against the Ukrainian people are increasingly barbaric.
UK weapons, equipment and training are transforming Ukraine’s defences against this onslaught. And we will continue to stand squarely behind the Ukrainian people to ensure Putin fails in Ukraine.”
These will help to swat a few Russians no doubt! “Captain James Oliphant, a British Army officer, helped to run training on the multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS), a large, mobile weapon on tracked wheels that fires 12 rockets at speed out to a range of more than 50 miles. “It came as a shock to us,” he said, speaking at the weekend, about the Ukrainians’ hunger to learn. “We prepared the training programme and the training content based on our experience delivering training to British soldiers. “And when we found out that they were professional rocket artillerymen, the content of… Read more »
Interesting that that piece mentions Ukr personnel being trained on L119 (I think) artillery. I did not know we had supplied that.
<i>The same enthusiasm was true for a large group of Ukrainian soldiers training on batteries of light guns, with a shorter range of up to 7 miles, also on Salisbury Plain.</i>
They could be Canadian supplied. The BBC video shot in Wiltshire had the British Army training the Ukrainians on MLRS but Canadians training them on light artillery.
I thought the camo looked a bit odd
They were NZ trainers.
They used L119 and bought 50 old school gunsights with them. No LINAPS will be sent.
The article goes on to mention that the MOD had purchased 50 of the guns second hand from a UK arms dealer for delivery to the UKR.
Not surprised to hear that.
Since February the MOD has been going round nations with old Soviet gear buying it up for the Ukrainians: apparently a few awkward moments where they encountered Russians doing the same.
/Sources?
If they were western arms dealers then they wouldn’t be able to export to Russia anyway…..
So I am not sure what the issue could be.
I’d have thought it more of a problem that the arms dealers were known to be talking to the Russians in the first place.
Many arms dealers have no scruples, whilst much Soviet weaponry is in countries that are not supporting sanctions.
Johnski
I always though arms dealers we’re ‘salt of the earth’ myself 🙂
While I have your attention: would you mind condemning the Russian’s forces barbaric and inhumane tactics?
I always found StPB so humid and full of mosquitoes at this time of year: and you?
Never been further east in Europe than Germany so wouldn’t know.
Was that on a Nazi exchange visit? Comparing jackboots, silly flags and rape statistics?
No, trips to married quarters at a place called Goch. Look it up.
Yaaaawn, how about answering the occasional question instead of bland deflection answers. Is the current illegal invasion of Ukraine by Putin an invasion or a special operation? Surely you can answer that easy question? Or to scared, not allowed?
He is a Putin bot. Hiding in the Kremlin. Made a massive mistake. Said he was based in Goch in the British Army.
What a liar. Ive lived in Goch. Its RAF only. Zeto army units or bases there.
Married quarters are only for RAF personnel based at Laarbruch. So he is out as a liar and completely blown his cover. He is as English as Lord Haw Haw. In fact he is a Russian equivalent Sir Johnski Haw Haw we will call you from now on.
Goch. I know it well. So you must have been RAF then? What squadron? I thought you said you were ex Army. There are zero army units at Goch. I know this as a fact. Never has been in the last 40+ years.
You make arms dealers sound almost as repulsive as yourself.
Most likely sold by the unit commanders! So, is the illegal invasion of Ukraine, by Putin, an invasion or a special military operation? Let’s start with an easy question ease you into it!
Not arms dealers, nations. Soviet stuff got exported all over the world.
Interesting. Very interesting. So the Russians are buying up old Soviet era weapons in bulk to deprive Ukraine from having access to those weapons.
No doubt Russians arms dealers are having a field day and its all funded by oil and gas sales to Europe.
Not Russian arms dealers, third nations. A huge amount of Soviet weaponry was exported during the Cokd War, and then by Russian arms dealers after the collapse. Though what these nations held and were prepared to sell is now virtually exhausted.
(Our guys did similar shopping during the Falklands War to deny missiles to Argentina.)
The only Russian arms dealers still in business are whose business is approved of by Putin – he has significant links with Russian crime syndicates from his St Petersburg days.
BBC says: “The UK has also purchased around 50 howitzers for Ukraine, another long-range weapon. The L119 light gun howitzer can fire up to 12km (eight miles) away.
Being picky, the L118/9 is not a howitzer, that is a different type of artillery, nor is it “long range” at 12Km!!!
It’s range on charge super is 17.5km mate.
Cheers Airborne, I should have remembered that🤓. Charge super on Abbots used to shake the breech ring contact off and snap a torsion bar if the gunners tried firing to front of the vehicle!
Happy days
Watched the 105s pushing out some charge super on Afghan, bloody hell, noisy, dusty and dangerous lol! But having 3 of those buggers in the FOB, with 2 81mm and a couple of 60 mms made all the difference, effective and lethal OS 24/7 👍
I think the training personel for the L119 arrived from New Zealand as they are far more familiar with its operation?
Probably because our L118s have slightly longer barrels, different type of ammunition (fixed), and APS which replaced the old sights and mirror in the 90s. Other differences as well but superficial to training such as different muzzle break etc! Always useful to have a younger smarter bro who is RHA (well now a crusty LE officer no longer at 7 RHA lol) but sat at a desk scratching his arse trying to last the extra 5 years commission time for the pension!!!! 😂👍
lol, arse scratching is all part of officer training at a certain age!
See my post below re L118s to DaveyB
I think in the video the BBC said Canadian, but the article said New Zealand. Point is, it seems Britain is providing training ranges for foreign equipment too.
Don’t start a battles of wits if you’re unarmed.
BTW – it’s still a stupid name, but maybe not for an idiot.
hopefully, others on here will read your comments above and see what a nasty person you are.
A typical gutless C who is happy to insult someone from the safety of their keyboard even when they know the insult refers to an individual’s dead family member.
As I said, FUCK OFF.
Wow Monty Python’s Black Knight has nothing on you does he? It takes truly world-class stupidity to keep coming back for more. As I said at the start, when you butted into this comment thread with you original unwarranted insult, for someone who doesn’t care about what I say you seem hilariously compelled to comment on every single one. I have a feeling on another thread sometime previously, perhaps last week(?) you posted something factually incorrect (or maybe something downright stupid) and I probably corrected it. Now you seem to be holding some childish grudge and feel compelled vent your… Read more »
The L119 are from the USA and NZ and the L118 are from the UK, the announcement was made back in May but seemed to get buried. Interesting to see NZ involved. Obviously western towed 155mm artillery is relatively limited in numbers but we have lots of 105mm. Hopefully it can be useful again bigger Russian artillery.
See my reply to DaveyB below.
Yeah I watched that on YouTube. I think 105mm could still be useful. They wouldn’t take it if they didn’t want it.
Apart from the AS90, what 155mm system are we giving Ukraine?
Kiwi troops support training
“The Ukrainian soldiers wore black bulletproof vests and helmets to distinguish them from their trainers, a mix of British and New Zealander troops.
Some 29 soldiers from New Zealand have travelled to the UK to help with the training because their military is more familiar with the L119 light gun.
The UK has bought around 50 of the weapons, second hand, from a British company to give to the Ukrainian military. They are due to be deployed imminently.
Britain is also sending a number of the multiple launch rocket systems to Ukraine.”
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-soldiers-hungry-to-learn-from-british-army-as-they-sharpen-skills-on-salisbury-plain-12642882
Thanks for this Nigel. 👍
Always welcome Daniele.
Looking at it neutrally (which is hard to do) it’s interesting that the UK can find 2billion for ukraine whilst at the same time fight tooth and nail to stop any more investments in our armed forces (bar those already agreed prior to Russia’s most recent invasion if Ukraine.)
Not wanting to sound curlish, where is the money coming from? Can the same fund be used to plug any urgent gaps that we currently have in our ukaf?
In a roundabout way it is enhancing our armed forces as its helping to fight someone that we may have needed to fight anyway …but the answer to your direct quesiton is (only in my opinion of course) a resounding NO.
We are seeing the BS and spin coming out of government even as we speak in this regard. .
Very interesting angle to look at it from. Appreciate your insight. Also IF said money is also making Russia weaker, then in a round about way it does fulfill a similar purpose to increased defence spending. Perhaps in the same vein they can use this ukraine fund (emergency defence fund perhaps) to buy new kit to backfill old kit sent to Ukraine, maybe even sneak in a slight increase in numbers for items like our mlr artillery.
Replacement for kit supplied to Ukraine is already funded as part of a £3bn contingency fund from the Treasury.
Quite.
You only need to mission kill a tank once.
If we give NLAWS To UKR and they do it for us it is the same output.
Putin has limited stocks, more limited that we or he thought.
I think this is from the normal contingency reserve which was how the Falklands was funded in 1982.
But BoJo afaics is conflating this with the Defence Budget and claiming Defence Spending at 2.3% GDP.
Cheers Matt. I’m not too familiar with these different funds, I’ve found reference to the CSSF conflict, stability and security fund. (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/defence-departmental-resources-2020/mod-departmental-resources-2020) do you have any links where I can read up a bit more about the one you mentioned, is it the same thing as the cssf?
We do badly need to pough money into our own armed forces! It shows the money can be found if there is a will to do so!
The money can always be found.
£3.5 billion on Ahax fir diddly squat outcome
£14 billion on track and trace. That never worked. Vs the offer of South Koreas proven effective app developed after SARS offered to the UK for 25 million. And we turned them down.🤣😅😆😅🤣😂😂😂😂😢😥😢😥😭😭
We are fighting a war by proxy, just like we did against Napoleon, we paid the Prussians and Spanish and helped arm them. The British Army was about the size as it is now. Not only are we helping a sovereign nation we are also helping defeat an unpredictable and dangerous foe. Will the MOD get a bigger slice of the countries gdp? How did we pay for the war against Napoleon? We introduced income tax.
Bloody hell are we still fighting napoleonic wars. I still get income taxes😂😂😂😂
…and income tax was meant to be a temporary expedient!
One report said that the money is coming from the MoD budget, not the FCDO budget or the Treasury Contingency Fund, but it must come from the latter.
What has not been mentioned is that we also appear to be providing 105mm Light Guns, possibly the older L118. This video shows Ukrainian gunners being trained on the weapon. At first I assumed it was FH70’s put when they loaded the gun in the video it was a brass shell case and I am pretty sure that the 155mm uses seperate shell and charge bags. I quick online search I found this image of the L118 – pretty sure its the same gun. With a 17km standard range (20km with extended range ammo) and quick in and out of… Read more »
Being reported after a week of bombardment Russia is withdrawing its soldiers from Snake Island on two speedboats as columns of smoke rise above the island, leaving behind its heavy investment in deploying multiple air defence systems on the island (including replacing two destroyed by earlier drone/AShM attacks) and significant ground fortifications having been constructed. Russia is trying to spin it as a gesture of goodwill to move out of the way of grain shipment routes.
Fingers crossed that means Putin no longer has his eyes on Odessa and might even be thinking of calling it a day after the Donbas.
Wishful thinking. Odesa got hit today.
Confirmed, the surviving Russians have been evacuated from the island after heavy continuous bombardment by Ukraine. More territory liberated from the invaders.
Goodwill. 🤣😅😆😅🤣😂 they dont half talk out their filthy rapists arses.
They have zero goodwill for the Ukranians are anyone else for that matter.
Grain shipments. By that i assume you mean the grain Russia has stolen from Ukraine and has no weaponised and selling it or perhaps gifting it to nations friendly to Russia. So China and India then.
Further sanctions I imagine, and perhaps increased supply of military equipment to counter however the chemical was deployed.
It would take years of work as the Russian aircrafts avionics arent set up to talk to western weapons and are significantly less sophisticated in ground attack targeting. You also have to validate how the weapon will respond when released, will it be caught in the aircrafts airflow?
Bout the most you could hope for in the short term would be bodge simple laser guidance and bomb release.
Thery used them in the UK – what did they do then…
What we are doing now, supplying Ukraine with arms and aid and sanctioning Russia.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-61987663
Scroll down and you see the BBC have compiled a top 10 donor list for military equipment given to Ukraine. What an utter embarrassment for some countries.
Makes me wonder if we really ever did beat fascist Italy and bring down the Vichy regime in France.
France has mostly not been publicising what its given and hasnt put a financial figure on it so its mostly guesswork, theyve given 18 Caesar 155mm artillery systems and recently announced Exocet missiles. They have also given a couple of billion in financial aid as well.
Italy hasnt really given much that we know, but they have also classified the information on arms shipments by law to conceal them from the Russians. So Italian media reporting on what items have been given would be breaking the law.
Though Italy were also donating some of the Pz2000s?
It’s time they started giving some money to our own defences as well given the increased risk and instability!
Hi folks hope all is well. Good to see the announcement and I would suspect there is also much going on that is not in the public domain. Although this is once again demonstrating the UK stepping up second after the US. However, on the same theme, whilst considering the NATO announcement of placing “300,000 troops on high alert”, how many NATO members are going to commit to the statement? At the moment it appears as usual the UK and US is doing the heavey lifting! On the margin of this matter, now that the UK is funding a further… Read more »
I wouldn’t think the UK would be committing vast qty’s of troops as we don’t have them.
Below is a link to the NATO website that gives more info on current deployments
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_136388.htm
Good, but sending in forces to give Ukraine a real chance of driving Russia out would be far more effective. A month or so ago Putin was on the ropes but we keep giving him the space to reform & redeploy his troops to renew their assaults. Our restraint is slowly strangling Ukraine.
So we can single-handedly double an entire country’s defence budget, but we can’t find any money for our own.
We have a political class that runs on spin/virtue signalling. We cannot afford to fill every gap in UK defences, but even filling a few gaps would help. A Few SAMP-T/CAMM-ER high end SAM systems. LRASM for RAF P-8. Some of these new “shoot & scoot” Supacat 105mm vehicles. Just to start.
The Supercat HMT carries the M777 155mm gun, not the 105. It cannot fire the gun when carried. It has to drop it on the floor. But the HMT should be easy able to carry the L118/9 105mm gun on a trainable turntable, whilst still be able to dismount it if needed. Bit like a pseudo CAESAR SPG. Have a set of hydraulic outriggers to counteract the recoil and to take the load of the suspension to make it more stable. I am surprised nobody has looked at it yet?
Umm, the latest one uses a 105 on a low recoil American mount. Announced a week or so ago.
The new Supacat HMT, was shown at Eurosatory 2022, about ten days ago. Uses the AM General Hawkeye low recoil system to mount the 105mm gun on the vehicle, which can also carry 30 ready use rounds.
If so, that’s great.
If you look at the Eurosatory videos on youtube, you should find it.
Boris Johnson giving a post NATO meeting news conference. Said defence spending will rise to 2.5% by the end of the decade then when asked about the manifesto commitment to increase spending 0.5% above inflation each year and troop cuts broke down into a jabbering wreck just spurting out the names of procurement programs randomly and said if the programs exist the funding must logically follow.
To be fair in 2019, everyone expected inflation to stay around 2% as it has done for most of this century. That’s he figure the BoE is expected to maintain.
No body was expecting either a global pandemic or major war in Europe, which combined has pushed inflation to 10%.
And yet while they knew that inflation would be at least 8% but likely fall significantly again once food/energy prices were ironed out they brought back the pension triple lock to lock in those rises…
Seems a bit pointless doing lockdowns etc for the last 2 years to save them from the pandemic only to then let them starve/freeze this winter because of inflation.
Even with that pension increase locked in, U.K. pensions will still be the lowest in the developed world.
Doesnt seem to be the case, seems actually amongst the highest.
Mercer Global Pension Index 2021
That graphic includes private pensions, not state pensions. So you’re comparing apples with orange-flavoured vodka. 🤦🏻♂️
The majority of pensioners who rely purely on the state pension are classified as living in poverty. This disproportionately hits groups such as the self-employed and women.
Its comparing the whole pension system of each country as a package, this is required because public-private pension arrangements are vastly different across countries, its not just one payment.
The whole package means base state pensions, public sector pensions, subsidy for private pensions, pensioner benefits, legal protections for pensions, the age you start receiving your pension, whether the state can pay for it or not (i.e. state pension funds like the Norwegian oil fund) etc..
So because some hedge fund managers have fantastic pension funds you let granny’s relying on the state pension to freeze/starve?
You can only compare state pensions between countries, because any attempt to compare private provision between nations is going to use a widely inaccurate average figure for any country that is completely unrepresentative of reality. You can’t assume every person has a private pension of £27k – which is the average figure – when over 20% of the population have ZERO private pension. 🤦🏻♂️
So you only care about the lowest common denominator? Its impossible to compare just one figure even purely looking at state pension. In the UK you get £141.80 a week basic state pension and £185.15 with 35 years of state pension credit. The Pension Credit benefit will then top up your Public/private earnings to a minimum of £182.60 for an individual and £278.70 for a couple. In the Netherlands the state pension is index linked to 70% of the minimum wage for a individual or 50% of the minimum wage for a couple. Thats £237 a week if single or… Read more »
Fair points. Also many of us on private pensions that vested into annuities, mine 10 years ago, do not have index linking so start way below that average figure and just get worse in real terms.
So working your arse off for the Kremlin, for a pittance?
Invasion or special operation?
No real suprises then!
“The UK government will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030, Boris Johnson has announced, as NATO’s secretary general warned that the alliance must stand up to Vladimir Putin.”
https://news.sky.com/story/uk-to-spend-2-5-of-gdp-on-defence-by-2030-boris-johnson-announces-12643124
You could look at mounting something like Brimstone to a Mig-29. However, you will need a new weapons computer, but also install a MIL-STD-1760 data bus. Which allows the computer to talk to the weapons and vice versa. The weapons computer will need to get feeds from the flight control computer. As the aircraft’s attitude will determine if a weapon can be fired or not, e.g. is it inverted? The majority of Western avionics use the 1553 data-bus or other variations. Russian built aircraft do not. Even the modified Polish aircraft do not have the 1553 or 1760 data-bus added… Read more »
We went through this right back at the start? I can’t remember if I updated that even the newer/refitted Russian jets were using NATO standard avionics provided by France. I think the Ukranian ones also had something similar provided via Poland. Given the simplicity of that part of the interface, I don’t think a software solution would be that hard. Sure the weapons computer and bus is Russian – maybe. Given the French gun sights thing I wouldn’t be totally surprised if the Russians did have some basic NATO standard weapons interfaces. There is no limit to human ingenuity. The… Read more »
Poland did some basic upgrades on there SU22, not to sure they able to add from memory. have to try to find the magazine
Whilst Russian avionics may have moved forward it is by no means certain that Ukraine’s have since joint development ended a long while ago. Also over the past few years the UkAF seems to have had difficulty finding the money to do basic things to their aircraft let alone significant upgrades.
But your rapist Army have no issues finding a few speedboats to shit their pants and speed away from that lovely little island you most recently made big licks about! Fucking hilarious, certainly Putins excuse for the quick, scared tail between legs exit!!!!!! You and he really think any person with an IQ above 3 will believe it! So the big question still remains, in fact it’s changed, it’s now is the attack on Ukraine by Putin an invasion or a special military operation. That’s easy to answer, isn’t it?
Do something useful for a change.
Take action against Graham Philips.
https://www.change.org/p/prosecute-graham-philips-for-his-war-crimes?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial&recruited_by_id=d5ef2f10-f85a-11ec-9bd9-196fb1be147e&utm_content=fht-33802880-en-gb%3A6&fs=e&s=cl
Really needs to be set up U.K. government petitions website to be sure MPs take notice of his activities
https://petition.parliament.uk/
I told the partition creator to do so on Parliament website.
I’ve signed on Change.org but let me if it does go up on the Parliament website. Even if it doesn’t get sufficient signatures, hopefully one or two MPs will pick it up and run with it.
Hey johnskie, a few posts you put up previously about the importance of snake island, I’ve got a few for you but here’s one for a starter: JohninMK 10 days ago There are other big potential reasons for Russia to to grab and hold onto the island. Namely to stop Romania from seizing it and turning it into a NATO outpost and economic. Re the latter, in the past there have been legal battles over it between Ukraine and Romania, as to who it belongs to and whether it is a rock or an island, it seems to be the… Read more »
😆👍 wonder if UKR will install ASM there now or leave it be?
What a load of tosh you sprout Sir Johnski Haw Haw.
RAF have been upgrading typhoon continuously as one example of upgrades completed.
Exactly what are the “loitering munitions” being supplied by a British start up company??
AA
Probably the same as when Assad used chemical weapons in his own country, Syria. Nothing.
Churchill once said war is a battle of economies and therefore whoever has the most powerful economy and most wealth to dpend on waging war should win. Our and other NATO allies donations of billions of £ of hardware are negligible compared to Russia’s huge income from gas and oil exports. Admittedly lots of that weslth gets misappropriated by the Oligarchs and Putin’s corruption inner circle but enough remains to mean that Russia has plenty of money to continue to wage war. Ukraine won’t be safe until the EU nations stop buying Russian gas and oil. Since the war commenced… Read more »