The new chief of the British army, Gen Sir Roly Walker, has issued a stark warning that the UK must be ready to fight a war in three years due to escalating threats from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Highlighting an “axis of upheaval,” he stressed the need to double the army’s power using advanced technology like drones and AI. As these nations increasingly support each other militarily, the urgency to bolster Britain’s defense capabilities grows, with the potential for a major conflict looming on the horizon.

The new commander of the army has warned that as the individual threats from North Korea, China, Iran, and Russia intensify, Britain needs to be ready to fight a war in three years and quadruple the lethality of its force.

Chief of Staff Gen Sir Roly Walker warned reporters that a conflict involving one of the countries might trigger “a significant detonation” in another theater and that the West faced “an axis of upheaval” with growing military ambition reports the Guardian.

He made the purposefully harsh argument that the UK and its allies needed to be prepared “to deter or fight a war in three years” in light of China’s animosity toward Taiwan, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and Russia’s militarization as evidenced by its special military operation in Ukraine.

Walker cited US assessments indicating that China’s president, Xi Jinping, had requested that the armed forces of the nation be prepared to invade Taiwan in 2027. He also raised concerns about Iran’s potential to try to renegotiate the nuclear agreement, which is meant to keep it from developing nuclear weapons while the war in Ukraine is ongoing.

In a speech that followed, Walker declared that he had “a bold ambition” for the army to “double our fighting power in three years and triple by the end of the decade,” not by adding more resources but rather by utilizing innovations in artificial intelligence and drone technology that have been developed on the battlefields of Ukraine.

In a briefing to reporters, Walker argued that although North Korea and Iran have supplied weapons and China components to support Moscow’s military effort in Ukraine, there is growing interdependence between Russia, China, and North Korea. Walker did not outline the nature of the global threats in the main body of his address.

The general stated, “The problem is, the ability to manage any one crisis that involves any of those actors becomes much, much harder,” as a result of their growing mutual support in the form of arms, parts, and intelligence.

Russia’s past showed that it could recover, even though it was deeply involved in the conflict in Ukraine, and that, based on current patterns, it would take its forces “five years to grind their way through” to seize the eastern Donbas for 1.5 million casualties.

The army chief had previously told reporters that Russia would come out of the current conflict with “a sense of wanting retribution for the support that was given to Ukraine” and that it might be a bigger medium-term threat than first thought.

At a time when the Labour administration has just started a strategic security review after the election, Walker contended that “we are not on an inexorable path to war” but added that “what we do have is an absolute urgency to restore credible hard power in order to underwrite deterrence.”

The man in charge of the review, George Robertson, a former secretary general of NATO, issued a warning a week ago, referring to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea as a “deadly quartet” and implying that there was widespread agreement among security experts that these four nations were increasingly cooperating.

The new army chief’s remarks, which coincide with the British army’s lowest strength in 300 years due to the country’s donation of artillery, tanks, missiles, and copious amounts of ammunition to Ukraine, will be seen by some as an appeal for continued funding for an outdated force.

The Labour government has promised to increase defense spending from its current level of 2.32% of GDP, or £64.6 billion, to 2.5% of GDP, but it has not yet provided a concrete timeline. Before determining what is feasible, ministers want to review the nation’s financial records; nevertheless, the Conservatives had earlier promised to do so by 2030.

Adm Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of staff of the British army, had already stated that the British army could justify further funding if its effectiveness increased, even though Walker was not immediately asking for more money.

At the ground warfare conference, Radakin stated, “Politics responds to positive reasons to invest,” adding that the military could “make the case for a stronger and more capable army” more effectively the more “the ambition grows.”

Radakin stated that the UK’s national security did not depend on an army enlarged by young conscripts, in contrast to the defeated Conservatives’ unexpected election promise to bring back national service.

“Poland is doubling the size of its army over the next decade. The Baltic and Nordic states are talking about mass resilience and conscription. That is understandable. They border Russia. The threat is close. Our geography is different,” Radakin said.

Walker, however, expressed concern that Britons did not seem to be as eager to defend their nation as those in eastern Europe. “The problem is that we do not think we have a problem,” he said.

Recently, GreatGameInternational reported that former RAF Commander Air Marshal Greg Bagwell has issued a chilling warning: Britain only has four fighter jets ready to defend against a potential Russian attack and could crumble under a major Russian assault.