Sitrep: Ukraine has 'added focus' to Defence Command Paper Refresh but not 'changed anything'
A military expert has told the BFBS Sitrep podcast the Defence Command Paper Refresh (DCP23) has no changes from 2021, but Ukraine has "increased the focus" of everything initially set out two years ago.
Professor Michael Clarke told the podcast: "Ukraine has increased the focus, it's added focus to this whole paper but it hasn't changed anything.
"So, although we now think there is more urgency and more importance in everything that was said in 2021, what was said in 2021 is basically reinforced now in 2023.
Prof Clarke, a former director general of defence and security think tank Royal United Services Insitute (RUSI), went on to say, "as the Defence Secretary himself said, there are no big announcements on new equipment, there's no big announcements on the money, or on numbers".
"The thing that I most noticed, and we've said on this programme before, that the MOD always says, upfront, that people are the most important asset.
"They normally say that in the foreword and then the policy for people is normally chapter 10 or 11.
"In this case, there it is in chapter one, so, full marks to the MOD for that and they do recognise that they've got to change the offer.
"They've got to try to create different types of forces but, again, when you get into the detail of that, we're talking about yet again, revisiting the reserve and how to use the reserves in a more immediate way, how to actually squeeze more numbers out of a very small group of reserves, actually, and so there's nothing new in there."
Prof Clarke also said that the Defence Command Paper did not address the cuts to the Army.
"I think it is, it's not unexpected and we all believe that Ben Wallace knows that Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff, is absolutely right, the Army is too small," he said.
"The Army's number now is simply inadequate and I've got no hesitation in saying that – it is inadequate to do the jobs which the Government says the Army has got to be able to do."
He did acknowledge the Defence Command Paper outlining the MOD would not just invest "in mass", but instead "investing in systems".
However, he said the problem is the paper "makes it really clear that we are now preparing for warfighting in the Euro-Atlantic area and for defence of the homeland".
"That's the focus that Ukraine has added, warfighting in the Euro-Atlantic area and defence of the homeland and, for that, you still come back, as the Ukrainians are finding, to numbers," he said.
"They say 'well, we need technical innovation so that we don't need as many people, we just use technical innovation and the cunning' – I've never seen that word before in a defence white paper.
"'The cunning' of those who operate them. So, as of this year, our forces are going to be 25% more cunning in everything they do."
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