Tag Archives: Defence security review

Britain, Defence, Government, Politics, United States

Defence: MPs say a spending boost of 50% is needed

MILITARY EXPENDITURE

DEFENCE spending must increase by 50 per cent to protect the special relationship with the U.S., according to a report by MPs.

Military expenditure, currently around 2 per cent of national income, must also rise for the UK to maintain its influence in NATO, they said.

The MPs reiterated calls for spending to go up to 3 per cent of GDP – which would be equivalent to an extra £2billion a year.

Without this, UK forces would struggle to maintain their ability to work alongside the US military, diminishing their usefulness as allies, the Commons defence select committee said.

The report added some in the US believe Britain’s defence capabilities have “slipped” and that concerns have been raised about the UK’s ability to operate independently.

The report reveals US defence secretary James Mattis had been referring to Britain when he said recently one of America’s allies had cut capacity “to the point where it could no longer speak with strength”.

Conservative MP Julian Lewis, the committee chairman, warned anything less than an investment of 3 per cent of GDP “endangers us and our allies”.

It comes as Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is locked in a battle with Theresa May over defence spending.

Dozens of Tory MPs could vote to block the Budget unless the Prime Minister increases military spending. It follows reports that Mr Williamson had told military chiefs he could bring down Mrs May if she refuses to back him in his fight to get an extra £2billion a year from the Treasury.

The report, published ahead of next month’s NATO summit in Brussels, also warned the UK military risks becoming “irrelevant” because of the time it would take to deploy forces. Currently, it would take 20 days to deploy a mechanised brigade and 90 for a division.

It suggested Britain should take the lead in defending the North Atlantic, bolstering its anti-submarine warfare capability to defend against a ten-fold increase in Russian submarine activity in the area.

The report said: “If the UK wishes to maintain its leadership position within NATO and continue such fruitful defence relations with the US, then it will have to invest more in its armed forces. Diminished capacity reduces the UK’s usefulness to the US and our influence within NATO. The Government must not allow this to happen.”

Mr Lewis said: “An increased commitment, in the face of new and intensified threats, means further investment is essential. Where percentage of GDP for defence is concerned, our mantra must be: ‘We need 3 to keep us free’.

“Anything less is simply rhetoric which endangers us and our allies.”

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Britain, Defence, Government, Military, National Security, NATO

Thousands of cyber-attacks a day target British military…

CYBER WARFARE

The Ministry of Defence in Britain fends off thousands of cyber-attacks every day while its military systems log and report more than a million suspicious incidents on a daily basis.

Increasingly, the UK’s critical infrastructure has become dependent on digital and electronic communication. Cyber-warfare is now such a pressing national security issue that, within the next few years, seems certain to become the UK’s top security priority. This week, the U.S. defence secretary, Ash Carter, warned that a cyber-intrusion in a NATO state’s network would be costly and could trigger a collective response that extends beyond cyberspace. Earlier this year former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen claimed cyber security had become part and parcel of collective security and urged allies to heighten their defences against unconventional warfare.

The head of the British armed forces’ cyber-defence programme, Brigadier Alan Hill, has said that his unit picks up as many as a million suspicious cyber incidents a day on its networks, which he says if left unmanaged could lead to a breach, allowing for a major cyber-attack.

Hill claims that as many as ‘hundreds if not thousands’ of these suspicious occurrences are attempts of serious cyber-attacks on Britain’s Ministry of Defence.

Hill says that he deals with a lot of attacks every day of a varying nature. He insists that what the attackers are after has not changed, but it is the intensity and complexity of the attacks that has. He also lays bare that the threats are evolving almost daily and that it is imperative that defence systems stay ahead of these threats.

Hill heads the Ministry of Defence’s Information Systems and Services which is the highly classified branch of the armed forces, responsible for the state’s cyber defence capabilities.

Despite British Prime Minister David Cameron being expected to heavily cut defence spending, Hill believes that cyber security will continue to be well financed as the nature of such threats demand consistently cutting edge technology and solutions.

He said: ‘More agile procurement is the only way we are going to stay ahead of the game because the tech is changing so fast. We are very sophisticated, but there is no complacency allowed… Traditionally, we defined what we wanted and then over 10 years we had it built. That is great for tanks and ships and aircraft but it’s no good in IT.’

He said he expected ‘continued investment at scale’ in the next defence security review, despite possible cuts elsewhere.

A large part of why the Ministry of Defence is a target for cyber-attacks is because the UK has several stakes within multiple international organisations, and because of its global influence.

Not all cyber-attacks will be categorised as cyber-espionage but the UK and the Ministry of Defence will certainly be a target for such high-end attacks. The UK is a high-profile NATO member and has military deployments and secondments in various conflict hot spots around the world. Lots of things make the UK a desirable espionage target and some of them make the Ministry of Defence a target too.

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