MPs unconvinced as military chief says UK would be ready to fight a war 'now' with Russia

The Chief of the Defence Staff has told an unconvinced Defence Committee the UK would be ready to fight a major war with Russia, despite MPs pointing to ageing equipment as a reason to doubt the claim.

Mark Francois MP, a former defence minister, asked Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin directly if the UK's military would be able to fight a major war with Russia if required to "tonight", to which the Armed Forces chief said "yes".

However, the Defence Committee seemed far from satisfied with his answer.

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The committee repeatedly asked for honesty and to "tell the truth" in regard to the state of the military and its warfighting capabilities throughout their questioning of Adm Radakin.

"If you crashed 3 Div out of barracks tomorrow morning, half of the vehicles wouldn't get out the tank park because  many of them are 40, 50 or even 60 years old," Mr Francois said, "because all their replacements haven't arrived yet."

The UK is, however, committed to providing a war-fighting division to Nato in the event of a full-scale war, and Adm Sir Tony was quick to defend the capabilities of his personnel.

"You're saying that we have all these people, so you've got 20-30,000 people and that, somehow, they don't exist and that they're useless," he said.

Mr Francois rebutted the military boss, saying: "But all of their vehicles are completely outdated.

"They exist, there's nothing to fight in."

Adm Sir Tony did "accept that the vehicles are really old, we accept the warfighting division that we've got now, we're investing in like crazy to improve for 2030".

"It's still a warfighting division," he said. "It's not the one that we want."