Entire country issued warning everybody is needed if Britain is forced to go to war against a major threat from Russia as military chief warns we must make ready for a new conflict
Britain's entire population has been issued a rallying cry to prepare for war from the Kremlin if it invades a NATO country. The UK’s most senior military commander Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton is calling for a “whole nation stepping up” in the struggle against Russia.
And he warned that the current threat is “more dangerous” now than at any time in his lengthy career in the Armed Forces. In a keynote speech on Monday Sir Richard, the Chief of the Defence Staff, outlined the need for a “whole of society approach” to building “national resilience.”
It is the latest in a string of warnings that the UK is already fighting a daily covert and “grey zone” war against Moscow over the Ukraine war. And that the entire country must prepare for war. In his first address to the Royal United Services Institute in London Sir Richard, an RAF commander and engineer, warned the UK must make ready for war.
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He says in his speech: “The situation is more dangerous than I have known during my career and the response requires more than simply strengthening our armed forces. 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.
“The war in Ukraine shows Putin’s willingness to target neighbouring states, including their civilian populations, potentially with such novel and destructive weapons, threatens the whole of NATO, including the UK. The Russian leadership has made clear that it wishes to challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy NATO, in former President Medvedev’s words, aspiring to “the disappearance of Ukraine and the disappearance of NATO – preferably both.”
He is expected to say: “Our armed forces always need to be ready to fight and win – that’s why readiness is such a priority. But deterrence is also about our resilience to these threats, it’s about how we harness all our national power, from universities, to industry, the rail network to the NHS. It’s about our defence and resilience being a higher national priority for all of us.
“An ‘all-in’ mentality. And that will require people who are not soldiers, sailors or aviators to nevertheless invest their skills – and money – in innovation and problem solving on the nation’s behalf.” He cited new Defence Technical Excellence Colleges, backed by £50 million, to help build skills needed to tackle the threat posed by Russia.
An engineer by background, Sir Richard will reference the recent Royal Academy of Engineering and National Engineering Policy Centre report which highlights an engineering skills gap. He adds: “Five colleges in England, and others across the UK, will gain specialist status and major new funding to train people in the skills needed to secure new defence jobs, and help deliver on the ambitions set out in the SDR.