One wonders if Hammond's reaction was conditioned by the drip, drip, drip of capbadge protection, FF2020, Army Reserve soundbites over the last year or so.
One might also argue it's less of a question of numbers than of political will. Between us and the Ukraine / Baltics there are at least two major land powers, the Poles and the Boxheads. Each of which maintains a standing army smaller than Army 2020 (60-odd thousand each). Might be worth asking Frau Merkel whether that's a sustainable position.
We may not have exercised return of forces to the continent in a long time, but we do at least exercise long range deployment - albeit primarily 3 Cdo and or 16AA. Whether the logs tail to sustain that for prolonged ops is there is another question.
an expensive but capable jet inbound sometime soon
One hopes you're not referring to Typhoon?