# What's the current state of the UK's armed forces?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-briefing-room-1106985/what-s-the-current-state-of-the-uk-s-armed-forces
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-briefing-room-1106985/what-s-the-current-state-of-the-uk-s-armed-forces.md
Podcast: [The Briefing Room](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-briefing-room-1106985)
Published: 2026-03-19T13:05:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002sr4w
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0n7ktly.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-briefing-room-1106985/episodes/what-s-the-current-state-of-the-uk-s-armed-forces
Duration seconds: 1715

## Resource

As contemporary hi-tech wars rage - Russia and Ukraine and the US-Israel war with Iran - The Briefing Room takes a hard look at the UK's armed forces. After telling his allies - including the UK - that he didn’t need them, President Trump called for them to help him open up the Strait of Hormuz, which has raised not just the question of should we, but could the UK do this? David Aaronovitch asks when it comes to big military operations what have we got? In this dangerous 21st century what do we need? Can we get it? And what about closer co-operation with other European countries? Guests: General Sir Richard Barrons, Senior Consulting fellow with the International Security Programme, Chatham House. Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow, Royal United Services Institute Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor, The Economist Ruth Harris, Executive Director for National Security and Data Science, RAND Europe Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley, Nathan Gower, Kirsteen Knight Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill and James Beard Editor Richard Vadon

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## Transcript

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