BRITAIN would get blitzed with long-range drones, ballistic and cruise missiles if it had to fight a war this year.
A landmark Strategic Defence Review set out five “methods of attack” the UK should expect if it was forced into state-on-state conflict.
These five methods are:
- Attacks on the armed forces in the UK and on overseas bases
- Air and missile attacks from long range drones, cruise and ballistic missiles targeting military infrastructure and vital national infrastructure
- Increased cyber attacks
- Attempts to disrupt the UK economy – especially the industry that supports the armed forces – through cyber attacks, intercepting shipping trade and attacks on space-based infrastructure
- Efforts to manipulate information and undermine social cohesion and political will
Bases, ports and airfields in Britain and around the world be the first to get bombarded.
And everything from oil rigs and subsea cables to satellites and merchant ships would also face cyber attacks and sabotage.
The dossier cautioned: “Considering the present-day warfare strategies, if the UK were to engage in a state-on-state conflict as a member of NATO in 2025, it might encounter some or all of the following attack methods:
“Attacks on the armed forces in the UK and overseas bases.”
Key bases would encompass the Navy’s primary ports at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Clyde in addition to global outposts like the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
The document further highlighted the possibility of: “Air and missile assaults employing long-range drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles, aiming at both military infrastructure and essential national infrastructure within the UK.”
The UK has no land based missile defence systems and relies on its six Royal Navy destroyers to intercept ballistic or hypersonic missile which Russia has used to blitz Ukraine.
Strategic Defence Review: Five Key Defence Pledges
- Up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines to be built under the Aukust pact
- £15bn investment in the UK’s nuclear warhead programme to maintain and modernise the deterrent
- New Cyber Command to be established, with £1 billion invested in digital warfare capabilities
- Up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons to be purchased, supporting 800 defence jobs
- More than £1.5bn in extra funding to repair and renew armed forces housing
But the government has pledged to invest £1bn in a new Iron Dome-style defence system to “protect the homeland”.
Other attacks in an all out war would include “increased sabotage and cyber-attacks affecting on and offshore critical national infrastructure.”
The report warns Britain is already “under daily attack” in the so-called grey zone, which includes cyber hacks and sabotage “beneath the threshold of war”.
It also warned the citizens to expect “attempts to disrupt the UK economy, especially the industry that supports the armed forces, including through cyber attack, the interdiction of maritime trade, and attacks on space-based critical national infrastructure”.
Finally, it warned the UK would face a massive propaganda blitz designed “to manipulate information and undermine social cohesion and political will.”
The review sets out plans to grow the Army, renew Britain’s nukes and recruit up to 250,000 cadets to get the country ready for “whole of society approach” to defence and resilience.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned that, “a step change in the threats we face demands a step-change in British defence to meet them”.
He added: “We need to see the biggest shift in mindset in my lifetime to put security and defence front and centre – to make it the fundamental organising principle of government.”
Vital War Chest
AFTER years of Whitehall deciding that defending the nation didn’t matter, the Government is right to now increase spending as part of today’s Strategic Defence Review.
Given massive global uncertainty, the UK should be on a war footing.
Yet there are concerns that the review doesn’t go far enough.
There is still doubt over whether or when Labour will spend three per cent of GDP on defence.
Planned submarines and weapons factories are also still decades away.
Then there’s Britain’s appalling record on procurement which has wasted
billions on dud kit.
There is still a great deal more for this Government to do.
