Armies across the world are temporarily putting down their guns and playing a frontline role in the war against the virus
TWO WEEKS ago Xi Jinping, China’s president, made a triumphal visit to Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, ravaged by covid-19, to declare that the virus had been “basically curbed”. His first stop was a hospital built at breakneck speed and run by the People’s Liberation Army . Now armies across the world are temporarily putting down their guns and playing a frontline role in the war against the virus.
On March 19th Britain, which had thus far taken a laxer approach to the enforcement of social distancing than Italy or France, announced a new “COVID support force”, which will comprise over 20,000 personnel, bolstered with reservists. Military planners will be deployed to Regional Resilience Councils to identify and resolve bottlenecks in the provision of medical care for the most vulnerable, says Mr Watling.
Military medics also train to operate amid chaos, with insufficient infrastructure and resources. Since January 25th China has sent over 10,000 military personnel into Hubei. In Wuhan, control of medical and essential supplies was handed entirely to the PLA. In Mulhouse in eastern France, where local hospitals have been overwhelmed, army medics are building a 30-bed field hospital for covid-19 cases.
It is understandable that overwhelmed states want to mobilise their armies for policing, logistics and medicine. But armed forces are designed first and foremost for killing people, rather than issuing fines on street corners or delivering food to supermarkets. And covid-19 will affect military preparedness, both directly and indirectly.
But even if armies do shrug off the immediate health effects of covid-19, the disruption to their work will have longer-lasting consequences. Self-isolating officers cannot gain access to classified networks from their homes, so many will have their productivity drastically limited. Meia Nouwens, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, another think-tank in London, says that the crisis has disrupted the supply chains for China’s defence industry.
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