The Race to Rearm – Could Britain fight a hot war within two years?

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Britain needs be ready to fight a war in Europe or the Atlantic in as little as two years – and we look badly underprepared. That’s the message of Labour’s sobering new Strategic Defence Review. So where are we weak, how fast could we rearm and what will it cost? And do the British people have the disposition to fight the sort of war we thought was in the past? Peter Ricketts, UK National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2012 and Britain’s former representative to NATO, explains the challenge of renewing Britain’s defences against a ticking clock. • Support us on Patreon for early episodes and more. • We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker to get your £100 sponsored credit. Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Tom Taylor and Sara Farolfi. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We run adverts on our podcasts so we can pay our team and our freelancers,
0:04.8	but we know that commercial messages are not everyone's cup of tea.
0:08.4	So if you'd rather listen without ads, there's an easy solution.
0:12.5	Just support us on Patreon for ad-free episodes.
0:15.9	Follow the link in the show notes to find out more.
0:31.2	Hello and welcome back to the bunker, separating the news from the nonsense every weekday morning.
0:32.3	I'm Andrew Harrison.
0:39.5	If, like me, you're part of the generations who were raised assuming that an actual shooting war was a thing of the past,
0:43.7	then the headlines for these past few months have felt like something out of science fiction.
0:48.6	UK faces most serious military threat since Cold War, Stama says.
0:57.4	Defence review to say UK must be ready to fight a war in Europe or Atlantic, and UK has just two years to prepare for World War III, former General Warns. Following the strategic defence review in June,
1:04.4	the Defence Secretary John Healy told MPs that Britain's army needs to become 10 times more lethal
1:09.7	to face a new era of threats.
1:12.5	But recruitment and re-arming are only half the story.
1:15.5	Even if Britain raises its defence spending to 3% from its current 2.3% as planned,
1:21.1	even if we update our stockpile of weapons and transform the morale of our armed forces,
1:25.8	is Britain politically and culturally capable of
1:29.4	fighting the sort of war we thought was in the past? Bluntly, are we up to it? Peter Ricketts,
1:35.7	Baron Ricketts, was the UK's first national security advisor from 2010 to 2012. He's been ambassador
1:41.0	to France, as well as our permanent representative to NATO, and he joins me today.
1:45.0	Hello, Peter.
1:45.7	Hello, Andrew.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 10 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podmasters, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podmasters and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.