By DPA,
London: The number of British troops who are too overweight or unfit for deployment are hampering the country’s war efforts in Afghanistan, according to the army.
The defence ministry has confirmed a report in Sunday’s edition of the Observer newspaper that quoted from an urgent internal army memo highlighting the problem and sent to all army units.
Currently, 3,860 army personnel were classified as “unable to deploy”, while a further 8,910 were of “limited deployability” for medical reasons, the memo said, according to the Observer.
Major Brian Dupree of the army physical trainee corps, who penned the July 10 memo said: “The numbers of personnel unable to deploy and concerns about obesity throughout the army are clearly linked to current attitudes towards physical training.”
The growing numbers of troops listed as “unable to deploy” and concerns over obesity in the army were clearly linked to a prevailing “indifferent attitude” to the prescribed minimum of two to three hours’ exercise a week, he said.
The memo recommends that the army “reinvigorate a warrior ethos and a culture of being fit” in order “to cope with the demands of hybrid operations in Afghanistan and future conflicts”.