IT could take only a 1,000 brave British troops to halt a major Russian invasion, the head of the British Army has claimed.
General Sir Roly Walker said the tiny British was like David fighting Goliath with his troops constantly learning from .
The former SAS boss leads the smallest for more than 300 years – of just 71,000 trained troops.
But he claimed better training and – like David’s legendary slingshot – would give British troops an “unfair advantage”; in any future conflict.
has lost a million troops to death and injury in so far.
And critics have claimed the British armed forces would run out of shells and in an afternoon of .
Gen Walker insisted Britain’s “combat mass”; would come with uncrewed drones in the future.
Addressing a Landware Conference in , he said: “A better trained force will often defeat a bigger and better equipped one. A lesson Goliath learned from David.”;
He claimed a 900-strong UK battalion guarding Nato’s eastern flank in Estonia was no-longer just a “strategic trip wire”;.
He claimed lessons from Ukraine – including new secret communication system – was giving British troops the edge.
He said: “It’s a project that is flipping our forward land forces in Estonia from a strategic tripwire into an invasion stopping capability.”;
He added: “When Russian soldiers eventually return to barracks across the River Narva, they’re going to find the same lethal recce-strike systems there, which gave them such a mauling in the Donbas.”;
British troops based in Estonia are armed with Challenger 2 tanks are serving as part of Operation Cabrit, to enhance ‘s forward presence.
Gen Walker said the Army still needed tanks – despite the fact that the £20million weapons could be blitzed by a £1,000 drone.
But in future he said the Army would need to spend half its on disposable and uncrewed weapons.
He described a new three-tier fighting system, with soldiers at the centre, protected by two outer rings of drones.
The troops will continue to operate “survivable and lethal platforms”; such as Challenger 3 tanks and Ajax and Boxer vehicles.
He said: “We wouldn’t put troops there without a rifle, radio, body armour and helmet, so why would we put their vehicles there without guns, armour plating and comms?”;
But he insisted those expensive vehicles would make up no more than a fifth of the army’s arsenal.
In the future, they will be bolstered by two outer layers of and AI powered drones.
He said they would provide the Army’s “combat mass”;.
The first robot later would“fly, float and drive”; and be bristling with sensors to find and track enemy units and loaded with missiles to destroy what they find.
He said: “You don’t want to lose them, but it’s not a tragedy if you do because, although sophisticated, they’re uncrewed.”;
The final layer will be made up of “consumable systems”;.
He said: “These are your even cheaper single-use platforms, like one-way effectors. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
“And that’s how we are multiplying our fighting power, with a three-ring source of lethality.”;
