Drones no alternative to conventional forces, retired general warns
Britain must maintain a strong conventional force in addition to developing its drone warfare capability, a retired Army general has warned.
General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, who was Nato's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 2014 to 2017, said drones should supplement conventional forces, not replace them.
Acknowledging their usefulness, he told Forces News: "I'm absolutely sure that we would be using drones a lot more than we are at the moment if we had more drones, but this all comes down to money."
Making reference to Ukraine, Gen Sir Adrian added: "We need to have a fundamental relook at our equipment holdings in the light of the evidence from this war.
"The Government is under huge pressure - one understands that - but defence is hugely important."
With the many possibilities of employing modern technology in warfare, he agreed there was a danger that conventional warfare might be overlooked.
He said: "There's already a tendency for us to go in that direction. The defence budget is already under pressure... and people are looking at the attractions of swarms of drones and precision strike and all those kinds of things as an alternative.
"But they're really not an alternative.
"The hard fact is we need both hard-edged conventional armoured manoeuvre capability and all these new capabilities and we've got to put them together in a new force mix."
Gen Sir Adrian also said the UK could not afford to rely on its nuclear capability should it have to fend off an aggressor in a Ukraine invasion-type scenario.
He explained: "We don't want to become too reliant on the nuclear deterrent. We need to be able to prevent an incursion onto Nato territory.
"We need to know with confidence that we can eject that incursion through the use of conventional forces without going nuclear.
"And if we can't eject it we end up with a frozen conflict, which is what Ukraine is facing now. That's not an acceptable position for Nato."
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