‘Whole of society’ effort needed to fight Russia threat, armed forces chief says

More UK families will “know what sacrifice for our nation means” as the nation seeks to deter a potential confrontation with Russia, the head of the military has said.

Sir Richard Knighton said the country’s security “cannot be outsourced to the armed forces” and “requires a whole-of-society response”, including harnessing UK universities and manufacturing.

While the chief of the defence staff suggested there was only a remote chance of Russia directly attacking the UK, he told an event at the Royal United Services Institute that so-called hybrid attacks showed the threat was worsening.

He referenced a Russian spy ship that was recently suspected of mapping undersea cables near UK waters.

“Every day the UK is subject to an onslaught of cyber-attacks from Russia and we know that Russian agents are seeking to conduct sabotage and have killed on our shores,” he added.

At the same time, Russia’s military had become a “hard power [which] is growing quickly”.

While Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine had been a strategic failure, he said, “we should be under no illusions that Russia has a massive, increasingly technically sophisticated, and now highly combat-experienced military”.

Sir Richard said the UK needed to make itself a “harder target” for hybrid threats and to avoid war.

Building the nation’s resilience went beyond strengthening the military and “more people being ready to fight for their country”, and included harnessing the UK’s universities, energy and manufacturing industries, and the NHS.

It also meant building industrial capacity “to meet the demands in the UK and of our allies to re-stock and re-arm”.

“Building this industrial capacity also means we need more people who leave schools and universities to join that industry.”

He added that “we need defence and political leaders to explain the importance of the industry to the nation, and we need schools and parents to encourage children and young adults to take up careers in the industry”.

Addressing a skills gap highlighted in a recent report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, Sir Richard also talked about the need to work with industry and young people, announcing £50m for new defence technical excellence colleges.

In recent weeks, both France and Germany have outlined plans for voluntary national service.

Last year, the then-Conservative government set out its own compulsory proposals, which Labour dismissed as a gimmick.

Sir Richard, who became chief of the defence staff in September, said he found himself in a position none of his predecessors had: “looking at the prospect of the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War”.

The government announced earlier this year that UK defence and security spending would rise to 5% of GDP by 2035 at the latest.

“Sons and daughters, colleagues, veterans will all have a role to play – to build, to serve, and if necessary, to fight,” Sir Richard said. “And more families will know what sacrifice for our nation means.

“That is why it’s so important we do explain the changing threat and the need to stay ahead of it.”