UK Will Invest On Space And Cyberwarfare Capabilities

March 27, 2021

The UK government’s ‘Defense Command Paper 2021’ has outlined its ambitious plans about how it would fight future wars in space and cyberspace.

According to the 76-page document published on March 22, the UK will trim the size of its military, which is already at its lowest numerical strength since its inception more than 350 years ago.

Analysts say the country is also planning to reduce its F-35 fighter fleet by more than two-thirds amid a record budget hike — £16.5-billion ($22 billion) — the highest since the cold war, despite the pandemic.

So, where all this money would be spent on?  The paper says the focus would be not just on the domains of land, air, or the seas, but also in space and cyberspace.

The UK government’s Integrated Defense Review published a week earlier described Russia as posing the “greatest nuclear, conventional military and sub-threshold threat to European security”, while the Chinese expansionism is seen as “the most important geopolitical factor in the world today”.

Apart from these two, Iran and North Korea are seen as probable actors whose actions could destabilize global peace and tranquillity with their nuclear programs.

With conventional forces still being kept although, in smaller numbers, the Army is focusing more on increasing Special Forces battalions, which are more capable of securing the UK’s national interests anywhere in the world with a high degree of professionalism and efficiency.

Russia and China’s preparedness in the space domain has already been cautioned by the United States in its congressional report released last year, and similarly has affected almost all the countries in Oceania and the West.

Cyber attacks, too, have increased exponentially in recent years, posing threats to power supply, internet connectivity, and communication lines.

Courtesy: EurAsian Times Desk