Retired British Army Col. Richard Kemp, who commanded U.K. forces in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, is warning about the current sad state of his country’s military.

In a Wednesday piece forThe Telegraph, he wrote that the British military has an alarmingly low level of ammunition on hand.

“Knowledgeable observers have suggested that our munitions stocks — from rifle bullets and artillery shells to long range missiles and drones — would see out only about a week of intensive fighting,” Kemp recounted.

“That’s even taking account of the fact that our Armed Forces are now very small, having been repeatedly hollowed out by successive governments. Even the handful of soldiers and tanks we could put into the field would be out of ammo in a matter of days,” he added.

The combat veteran contrasted that position with theUnited States, where, “According to a recent contract announcement, the US will raise production of the well-known, very powerful Tomahawk cruise missile to ‘more than 1,000’ per year.

“Output of the Amraam beyond-visual-range weapon, America’s premier air-to-air missile at the moment, will rise to ‘at least 1,900’ annually. Manufacture of the SM-6, one of the few defensive weapons able to shoot down hypersonic threats, will rise to ‘more than 500’ annually. Production of the complex SM-3, able to engage ballistic missiles or even satellites flying outside the atmosphere, will also rise.”

Kemp went on to explain, “When America needs more bombs and bullets it surges production… to create a great leap forward. In Britain, and the rest of Europe, we don’t do that, we just clump along with some minor fiddling at the edges, always evolutionary, never revolutionary.”

The production surges, called “burst mode,” involve the “US government underwriting risk to manufacturers, paying up-front for factory expansion and guaranteeing purchases if the war cools down. Shifts are increased and factories run round the clock. When necessary older, proven designs are implemented with lower specs if that speeds up output,” the military expert pointed out.

Meanwhile, Britain is not willing to risk such “inefficient” spending to crank up munitions production.

This Government is taking its customary plodding approach to our depleted ammunition stockpiles. My article in the Daily Telegraph. (1/2)pic.twitter.com/e6QlUUFwLr

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