The UK will probably need to have a citizen volunteer army in the future as NATO faces the threat of war with Russia – but conscription remains unlikely, a Sky News military analyst has said.
General Sir Patrick Sanders’s remarks have prompted many to question whether he was hinting at a need for conscription if the UK and its NATO allies do end up fighting Russia.
In his speech at the International Armoured Vehicles conference in west London, Sir Patrick said the UK must urgently expand the size of the army to around 120,000 within three years – up from around 74,000 now.
Professor Clarke has told the Sky News Daily podcast that the UK would have to go back to having a “citizen army”, adding: “That’s not the same as conscription.”
He continued: “What Sir Patrick is saying is that, we’ll have to go back to bigger forces. It will need to be a citizen army, but a citizen volunteer army of the sort that we’ve had in the past, and we will probably have to have once again in the future.”
