UK faces ‘most dangerous period’ in decades, says Chief of Defence Staff

Sam Hall, Press Association

The Chief of the Defence Staff has said now is the “most dangerous period” in decades for the UK and the country needs to prepare for potential “longer conflicts”.

The Defence Secretary said on Monday that a long-awaited defence investment plan could be published before the Nato summit in early July.

John Healey told MPs that the Prime Minister was hoping to launch the delayed policy details before the Nato event in Ankara, Turkey, which begins on July 7.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton said Russia was “probing, challenging, testing our defences” including through “cyber attacks or trying to smuggle technology and reckless sabotage and assassination attempts”.

The Chief of the Defence Staff added that Moscow was “definitely raising the stakes and risks crossing a line”.

Sir Richard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday: “This is the most dangerous time I have known in my working life.

“And it is important that society and all of us recognise and understand that, and that may mean that we need to make different choices and different priorities.”

The defence investment plan, known as the Dip, was originally slated for publication last autumn but has been repeatedly delayed.

It will set out a plan for how money is spent on defence.

Some in Westminster had expected the plan to be published this week, exactly a year on from the strategic defence review that called for a Dip.

The Chief of the Defence Staff said: “In my 35-year career, this is the most dangerous period that I have known.

“And as a consequence, it is important that we enhance the capability and the readiness of our armed forces alongside our allies to deter our adversaries from doing something daft.

“Over the last two decades we have been preparing for shorter wars and for conflicts that are confined and limited, what we need to ready ourselves for is potentially much greater, longer conflicts, as we’ve seen in Ukraine.”

Sir Richard said drones and autonomous systems are “going to become increasingly important in the future of warfare” and are an area where the UK needs “to invest more and enhance our capability”.

Ministers have been repeatedly criticised over the delay to the Dip, with Commons Defence Committee chairman Tan Dhesi saying Britain’s military and defence industry “need to know where we stand and where we are going”.

A wrangle between the Treasury and Ministry of Defence is thought to be behind the delay.