LONDON (AFP) – The new head of Britain’s armed forces warned on Monday that “more” Britons will need to be ready to fight for their country due to an increasingly dangerous world.
Richard Knighton’s comments came as the UK’s new MI6 spy chief said separately that Russia had propelled the globe into an “age of uncertainty”.
“The situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career and the response requires more than simply strengthening our armed forces,” Knighton said in a speech.
“A new era for defence doesn’t just mean our military and government stepping up — as we are — it means our whole nation stepping up.”
Knighton, chief of the defence staff since September, made his plea during an address at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think tank specialising in defence.
He called for “national resilience” in the face of a “growing” risk to the UK from Russia, which has waged an almost four-year war on Ukraine since it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
“It means more people being ready to fight for their country,” said Knighton, adding he wanted to contribute to a debate recently triggered by his French counterpart, Fabien Mandon, who said France must be ready to “lose its children”.
Knighton said while regular forces will grow, officials also envisage “a major increase” in the number of active reserves and cadets.
“More families will know what sacrifice for our nation means,” he added, announcing £50 million ($67 million) in funding for new “Defence Technical Excellence Colleges” to help defence employers train up staff.
Britain has repeatedly warned of the threat from Russia, recently raising the alarm after the government said a Russian military ship was sighted near British waters, and citing cyberattacks.
‘GREY ZONE’
Blaise Metreweli, the first woman to lead the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), highlighted in her maiden speech on Monday the threat posed by an “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist” Russia.
In its war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin “is dragging out negotiations and shifting the cost of war onto his own population”, she said.
“Russia is testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war,” she added,
Metreweli highlighted measures by Moscow to “bully, fearmonger and manipulate” through cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, drones buzzing around European airports, aggressive activity on the seas and state-sponsored arson.
“Across the globe, we are now confronting not one single danger, but an interlocking web of security challenges — military, technological, social, ethical even — each shaping the other in complex ways,” she said.
“We are now operating in a space between peace and war.”
Metreweli was appointed in June as the 18th head of the service. The MI6 chief is the only publicly named member of the organisation and reports directly to the foreign minister.
She warned of the increasingly complex nature of global threats, adding the “front line is everywhere” as a result of cyber disruption, hybrid warfare, “terrorism and information manipulation”.
The speeches came as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in Berlin for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders on how to end Moscow’s nearly four-year invasion.
The British defence ministry has just launched a new organisation — the Military Intelligence Services — to unify intelligence-gathering and -sharing efforts undertaken by the army, navy and air force.
“The announcement comes amid escalating threats to the UK, as adversaries intensify cyber-attacks, disrupt satellites, threaten global shipping lanes, and spread disinformation,” the ministry said on Friday.
