The British have a number of real problems with their armed forces. We've gone over quite a few of them here.

There's the pitiable plight of the Navy, once the world's most dominant, giving rise to the immortal phrase, Britannia Rules the Waves. 

Sometimes lately, it almost seems as if a good stiff breaker could swamp what's left of their navy. This benign neglect in favor of other pet projects like windmills, solar farms, destroying energy independence in pursuit of ruinous NetZero goals, and supporting a burgeoning welfare state began long before the current Labor government.

The fact that Labour is not military-friendly has only hastened the decline to crisis status in spite of their oft-mouthed intent to rhetorically 'turn the ship (of decline) around.'

...As for agreeing to spend all that money in Ukraine, there is no money available for the British defense budget until 2030.

...HMS Iron Duke's departure emerged hours after another key advisor on defence, former general Sir Richard Barrons, launched a scathing attack on the government.

General Barrons said the Ministry of Defence was going 'backwards' on military investment. 

Only last year the former Army commander was a close aide to the Defence Secretary John Healey and was a co-author of the UK's Strategic Defence Review (SDR).

Another advisor, former Nato Secretary General George Robertson, broke ranks last month calling for urgent recapitalisation of Britain's armed forces.

General Barrons said the Army has no money left to buy new weapons before 2030 and only 'just about' enough money for conventional platforms like helicopters...

I've been seeing some sad marching videos from yesterday's Remembrance Day parades. 

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Hopefully that's not the state of things in general.

In April, there was a bit of a bright spot, as years of declining numbers in service member enlistments had seemed to finally stabilize. But attrition in the ranks of seasoned veterans was eating away at experience levels.

The folks who were supposed to teach the new recruits how to be a soldier or sailor were leaving in droves. The steady heads because they've been there, done that, who teach the newbies to chill under pressure.

They're not sticking around.

The UK Ministry of Defence has revealed that overall headcount in the British Armed Forces increased over the past year, but the number of fully trained personnel declined.

Statistics showed total service personnel reached 182,050, up 1,270 from a year earlier.

London attributed the increase to stronger recruitment and reduced departures, reversing a previous trend where more personnel left than joined.

“Intake has been greater than outflow” for the Royal Navy since early 2025 and for the Royal Air Force since midyear, the defense ministry said. The British Army has also narrowed the gap, though it has not yet reached parity.

...Despite these gains, the number of full-time trained and trade-trained personnel, or those qualified for deployment, fell to 126,440, down 600.

The decline reflects ongoing retention challenges, particularly among mid-career personnel leaving for civilian opportunities or greater family stability.

Voluntary departures remain the primary cause of exits, with approximately 6,330 personnel leaving voluntarily, accounting for 60.5 percent of the outflow and an overall rate of 5.2 percent.

That begins to illustrate the very first and foremost problem now facing the British military. 

The active legal campaign against its own soldiers for 'war crimes,' which is going back decades to look for soldiers to charge.

The fear of a tribunal and being pulled out of retirement to answer for combat situations in decades prior has made today's British soldiers, especially in those elite units tasked with the most dangerous of missions, gunshy about ever pulling a trigger.

SAS issues warning over troop ‘witch hunts’

SAS soldiers are reluctant to carry out missions where they may have to “shoot people” over fears they will be accused of war crimes, senior serving officers have said.

Special Air Service soldiers told The Telegraph that the ongoing Afghanistan inquiry into the elite unit had left its troops concerned about going on operations that might require lethal force.

The inquiry was kick-started following a BBC Panorama investigation in 2022, and there is deep unhappiness about claims made by the broadcaster that SAS personnel killed unarmed civilians and children, with a source describing its reporting as “vexatious and fallacious”.

The BBC's 2022 program had slyly insinuated that SAS operators had 'executed' civilians during missions in Afghanistan and consequent detentions in 2004-2013.

The Ministry of Defence has accused the BBC of putting front-line troops at risk with a new SAS “death squads” documentary. 

The hour-long documentary, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, asks if any of the “hundreds of people” killed on night raids by Special Forces were in fact executions. 

Panorama said the programme investigates a series of raids “where people were shot dead after they surrendered to British forces”.

This has naturally led to a certain reluctance on the part of operators to go out in the field.

...The Telegraph understands that there have been no outright refusals within the SAS to go on high-risk missions.

However, a number of serving members are said to be “less inclined” to volunteer for roles that involve dangerous operations, should they later be investigated for their conduct.

Asked what kind of missions that included, the source said: “Jobs where you might end up shooting people.”

And they point out that British soldiers have spent years waiting to clear their names and then left the service after being exonerated, taking all that experience with them.

...They pointed to five special forces members who were accused of unlawfully killing two teenagers in Syria during a mission in July 2022 to capture an Islamic State commander.

The men spent three years with the case hanging over them before they were cleared of murder, during which time they were deployed on dozens of missions. They have all left the service.

It later emerged that the teenagers had been linked to Islamic State.

Why on earth would you stay?

But it's par for the course for Labour.

In July of 2025, Prime Minister Keir Starmer threw open the possibility that British soldiers who had served in Northern Ireland during 'the Troubles' could be prosecuted for war crimes.

The country erupted, and aging veterans reeled back in shock.

...And veterans who were in the middle of a warzone feel like they're being sold out for political correctness by people who have no idea what went on in that hellish place. That every incident any of them were involved in is going to be scrutinized for a chance to prosecute for war crimes.

...Veterans said all the focus seemed to have been on the “right to life” of “armed terrorists” and that they felt alone in facing criminal investigations for what they were trained, authorised and expected to do during the Troubles.

“The anger, frustration and embitterment they feel at their treatment will need to be addressed if they are to be persuaded to co-operate with duties reviews and investigations,” the letter said.

It is understood that dozens of special forces veterans are being investigated over historic incidents and if the number of civil cases, inquests and potential criminal prosecutions continue that figure will rise into the hundreds. Former regular personnel could also face inquiries.

Veterans said an inquest in February that ruled the use of lethal force by SAS soldiers was unjustified when they opened fire and killed four IRA men in an ambush in Clonoe had “brought matters to a head”.

The IRA members died in 1992, minutes after they had carried out a gun attack at Coalisland in Co Tyrone.

The special forces troops opened fire at the men as they arrived at St Patrick’s Church car park in a hijacked lorry which had a heavy machine gun welded to its tailgate...

Military voices are now speaking up to try to mitigate the harm these repeated inquiries and assaults on the morale of troops, active and retired, are causing, but I doubt it will change any vindictive, military-hostile minds.

...Earlier this year, Brig Ed Butler, the president of the Special Air Service Regimental Association, the organisation that represents past and serving SAS members, warned that repeated “witch hunts” were affecting recruitment and playing into the Kremlin’s hands.

Gen Lord Sanders, the chief of the general staff until 2024, told The Telegraph last month that the “pernicious” effect of lawfare had left soldiers feeling as though the Government did not “have their backs”.

...Speaking on Remembrance Sunday, Mr Streeting acknowledged that the inquiries had left special forces troops “under a cloud” of uncertainty.

The Defence Secretary said: “Today, they live under a cloud, worrying about whether they are going to be persecuted rather than thanked for their service. Those are things I need to put right – there’s going to be a process; it’s not simple.”

The Telegraph understands that Sir Ben Wallace, a former Conservative defence secretary, has been contacted by numerous serving special forces staff deeply concerned by the hounding of troops and the impact on recruiting, morale and capabilities.

You can't expect service members to volunteer, do their duty, and perform at optimum levels when, in the back of their minds, they know they could be hounded into court at any time during the rest of their lives for anything that happened.

...Central to the concerns is the Haddon-Cave inquiry, in which 150 SAS soldiers who served in Afghanistan have been warned they face questioning or a demand for written evidence.

After the inquiry was launched in March 2023, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave said an interim report would be given within 18 months. Lawyers later believed they would conclude the inquiry in 2028.

However, the discovery of 97 million new documents in September has thrown this into doubt, and risks the £58m cost of the inquiry rising further.

Earlier this month, Angus MacIntyre, the Reform Party Armed Forces spokesman and a former RAF officer, called on the Government to end prosecutions of special forces personnel.

In an interview with The Telegraph, he warned that Britain’s adversaries had been watching what was unfolding as its elite forces were dragged through the courts.

In an anecdote from the comments on the story, apparently one of the lawyers justifying the inquiries over excessive violence explained how one should wage war as opposed to what the SAS operators had done:

What did one lawyer say, soldiers should stop firing to check the person they are firing at are dead

Dear God.

When that's who holds your fate in their hands, it's much easier and safer to leave the military - or never join. 

Go be a bagger at the supermarket or a clerk at a bank.

Because you can't win.

As a member of your nation's military, the government is supposed to have your back. 

Not use it for target practice.