UK developing major plan to prepare country for war

Officials warn UK’s 30 years of relative peace are under threat

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton said the updated version of the Government War Book would require a new approach to resilience, drawing on lessons from the Cold War but adapted to a modern society and modern infrastructure.

Knighton revealed in an interview on Friday at the London Defence Conference that a threat by the UK to seize ships that are part of Russia's murky "shadow fleet" is already having an effect, while British forces have yet to board any vessels.

The chief of the defence staff said that simply knowing London was prepared to target a sanctioned tanker was prompting Moscow to either escort those vessels or reroute them away from UK waters.

However, shadow fleet ships have still been spotted off the coastline without being stopped.

Air Chief Marshal Knighton said there was “no doubt” that they “are ready” when asked whether a boarding operation was imminent.

It seems the biggest challenge for the military chief is a push to put the Royal Navy, army, and Royal Air Force back on a war footing after decades of underfunding under previous Conservative and Labour governments since the collapse of the Soviet Union, per Sky News.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his defence secretary, John Healy, have since promised to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP from just over 2%, however, not until 2035.

Additionally, they are set to release a crucial 10-year investment plan for the armed forces, which will set out what weapons and capabilities the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will procure.

The Defence Investment Plan was originally due to be published last autumn, but Mr Healy said in a separate Sky News interview that it is uncertain whether it will even be released by this summer.

This delay means large parts of the UK defence industry remain in limbo, waiting for the promise of new funding to be realised.

According to Chief Marshal Knighton, the hold up was due to the MoD holding out for more money to be made available from the Treasury faster.

"What I want is a defence investment plan that is properly funded and delivers what we want," he said.

"If that takes a bit longer, I'd rather have something that works and we can deliver."

A key point in his remarks was the plan, led by the Cabinet Office and involving all other government departments, to create a revised version of the former War Book.

Regularly rehearsed and updated War Books, first developed during the First World War, helped make the UK one of the best-prepared and most resilient nations in the world in the event of conflict.

War Books contained detailed lists and pointed to complementary plans for how to mobilise not only the military but also civilians and industry in a crisis, as well as measures such as closing schools, clearing hospitals, rationing food, and even storing national treasures.

That changed after the Cold War ended, and by the early 2000s, the entire UK War Book system, which was expensive to maintain, had been quietly shelved.

Asked whether Britain was reviving the old government war book, Air Chief Marshal Knighton said: "I think that's right."

He then explained what that would look like.

"NATO describes the transition to conflict as a military component, but it also has a civilian component," the defence chief said.

This includes making sure critical national infrastructure, such as power stations and water supplies, is resilient not only to natural disasters like flooding but also to the risk of war.

"I talked before Christmas of the need that when we think about renewing our water infrastructure or electricity or transport infrastructure, to think about the threat of action from an adversary that is above the threshold of war, not just a hybrid threat," he said.

"And think about how we build in that resilience as we renew it, and that requires making some different choices and different priorities, and that work that the Cabinet Office is doing across the whole of government is something that I really welcome."

Air Chief Marshal Knighton went on to say that civilians should be aware that the relative peace the UK has enjoyed over the past 30 years is now under threat.

"That requires us to educate ourselves and help the population understand some of those threats and help them understand what they can do to support the nation and potentially support the armed forces."