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Lord Richards of Herstmonceux, who (as General Sir David Richards) was head of the armed forces from 2010 to 2013, told Times Radio that he was concerned the plans to reduce the size of the army by 10,000 could leave the UK vulnerable. He said he was in favour of modernising the armed forces. But he said that shouldn’t be “at the expense of conventional capabilities”.
He explained:
You’ve got to have some of the more traditional capability in case mass becomes an asymmetric attraction to one’s potential opponents.
I’m thinking Russia and China. I don’t necessarily buy that they’re about to start World War Three with us, but they still possess large numbers, and if all we’ve got is high-tech stuff, and they’ve got half a million troops that can come across the border at you, then these high-tech capabilities aren’t going to be much good.
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large trial in the US, Chile and Peru, my colleague Sarah Boseley reports.
Related: Covid: AstraZeneca vaccine 79% effective with no increased blood clot risk – US trial
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