Britain has just five years to prepare for World War 3, according to a top army boffin.

Outgoing army head General Sir Patrick Sanders reckons Brits have until 2029 to stockpile weapons and ammo and prepare a citizens’ army for a battle with Russia. The chief reckons the “new axis powers” of Russia, China and Iran are “more aligned than the Nazis” and the world is facing its most dangerous moment since 1945.

But with Russia’s forces and weapons depleted in Ukraine it will take five to ten years for Vladmir Putin’s forces to rebuild ready for another major battle. The general said: “Most estimates will tell you that we’ve got somewhere between five and ten years before Russia recapitalises and is able to pose the sort of threat that it did before the Ukraine war.

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“If we take the right steps now, if we address the threats and gaps we have in our capability, if we modernise our armed forces, if we make society and the UK more resilient, that’s how we prevent it. If we do that, it’s a low likelihood.

“If we don’t, it increases the probability and it encourages Russia, China and Iran.”

Sanders reckons the UK’s own armed forces are no longer powerful enough to repeat the kind of invasion of southern Iraq that they did in 2003 or even retake the Falklands Islands again as they did in 1982.

He added: “Could you scramble together the two brigades that took the Falklands? Yes, of course we could. But could we get them there? Could we have the task force that made it possible and sustain it? No.”

New PM Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP but only when the public finances are healthier.

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