Nightmare of how Putin would flatten Britain: Ports and airfields bombarded, oil rigs and satellites sabotaged and waves of cyber attacks feared if Russia pounces

Daily Mail​

03-06-2025

Putin could overwhelm Britain's defences with swarms of explosive kamikaze drones, long-range missiles and crippling cyber hacks if the UK had to fight a war this year.
That's the chilling warning issued by the landmark Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which exposed the vulnerabilities the UK needs to urgently fix to prepare for war.
In a comprehensive 144-page document, revealed yesterday, defence chiefs outlined the five terrifying 'methods of attack' Britain should brace itself for if it was forced into a major conflict with the likes of Russia.
Military bases, ports and airfields in the UK and around the world would be the first to come under siege, blasted by waves of drones and long-range cruise, ballistic or hypersonic missiles.
Oil rigs, subsea cables, satellite communications and merchant vessels would also find themselves in the crosshairs of any onslaught by Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, with saboteurs seeking to damage or destroy them.
And a shadowy digital army of hackers would also launch a devastating barrage of cyber attacks, targeting government bodies, stock exchanges, communications and other critical infrastructure in a bid to paralyse Britain.
The SDR warned: 'Based on the current way of war, if the UK were to fight a state-on-state war as part of Nato in 2025, it could expect to be subject to some or all of the following methods of attack:
Attacks on the armed forces in the UK and on overseas bases
Air and missile strikes from long range drones, cruise and ballistic missiles targeting military infrastructure and critical national infrastructure
Increased sabotage and cyber attacks
Attempts to disrupt the UK economy - especially the industry that supports the armed forces - through cyber attacks, intercepting shipping trade and attacks on space-based infrastructure
Efforts to manipulate information and undermine social cohesion and political will
The dossier warned major attacks could target military bases and outposts in the UK and across the globe.
Among the key targets would be the Royal Navy's three main bases in Portsmouth, Plymouth and Clyde, as well as overseas HQs like RAF Akoritiri in Cyprus, the RAF's new base in the Middle East at Al Minhad Air Base and the Diego Garcia outpost in the Indian Ocean.
Describing the threat faced by Britain, the review continued: 'The UK and its allies are once again directly threatened by other states with advanced military forces.
'The UK is already under daily attack, with aggressive acts - from espionage to cyber-attack and information manipulation - causing harm to society and the economy.
'State conflict has returned to Europe, with Russia demonstrating its willingness to use military force, inflict harm on civilians, and threaten the use of nuclear weapons to achieve its goals.
'More broadly, the West's long-held military advantage is being eroded as other countries modernise and expand their armed forces at speed, while the United States' (US) security priorities are changing, as its focus turns to the Indo-Pacific and to the protection of its homeland.'
The defence dossier also warned of: 'Air and missile attack from long-rage drones, cruise and ballistic missiles, targeting military infrastructure and critical national infrastructure in the UK.'
Currently, Britain has a limited air defence capability - with military chiefs and experts previously warning the nation would be overwhelmed if it faced a drone and missile onslaught on the scale of those seen in Ukraine, Russia and Israel.
Britain's new defence drive - at a glance
Britain's new weapons drive review made a list of more than 60 recommendations to enable the UK to 'pivot to a new way of war'.
They include:
Increasing the size of the army by 3,000 soldiers to 76,000 troops in the next parliament. The review also aims to boost the 'lethality' of the army ten-fold, using drones and other technology.
A 20 per cent expansion in volunteer reserve forces. However, this is only when funding is available and will not likely happen until the 2030s
Reviving a force of tens of thousands of veterans to fight in a crisis. A similar scheme dubbed the 'Strategic Reserve' was used during the Cold War before being axed.
Investing more in new tech like AI, lasers and robots. The paper also warned Britain must develop new ways to counter biologic weapons.
Opening up the possibility of the UK buying warplanes capable of carrying American-made nuclear missiles. Currently, Britain's nuke arsenal is the responsibility of the Royal Navy, who took over the role from the RAF decades ago.
Boosting the size of the cadet force, made up of schoolchildren, by 30 per cent and offering a 'gap year' to people interested in sampling military life.
New investment in long-range missiles, submarines, munitions factories and cyber warfare HQs.
Over the weekend, the ease at which cheap drones strapped with explosives could deal a crippling blow to even the most powerful militaries was demonstrated.
In one of its most audacious attacks of the war, Ukraine unleashed 'swarms' of kamikaze drones from the backs of trucks to obliterate two of Putin's key airfields deep inside Russia.
Dubbed 'Operation Spiderweb', the co-ordinated strikes left Putin humiliated and seeking revenge - with dozens of his prized doomsday warplanes razed to the ground.
Two remote military airfields, Olenya in the Arctic Murmansk region and Belaya in eastern Siberia, were rocked by massive explosions, with dramatic footage showing fires raging for hours.
The bases, located thousands of miles from Ukraine, are critical to Russia's nuclear strike capability and were considered untouchable.
Yet Ukraine's daring raid saw them struck with deadly precision, using first-person-view (FPV) drones launched from unmarked vans parked near the airfields.
Ukraine's security service, the SBU, claimed to have hit $7billion (£5.2billion) worth of military equipment. Each of the drones used cost several hundred pounds by comparison.
The ease of the barrage is likely to alarm defence planners in Britain, which would currently struggle to fend off such an assault.
In a devastating verdict on the state of the UK's defences, the SDR said today's armed forces are 'not currently optimised for warfare', with inadequate stockpiles of weapons, poor recruitment and plummeting morale.
'The international chessboard has been tipped over,' a team of three experts that led the review wrote in a foreword to the document.
'In a world where the impossible today is becoming the inevitable tomorrow, there can be no complacency about defending our country.'
The UK has limited ground-based defences, which includes the Sky Sabre missile system capable of blowing cruise missiles and fighter jets out of the sky.
However, Britain would rely on the Royal Navy's six Type 45 destroyers to take down faster ballistic or hypersonic missiles which Russia has used to blitz Ukraine.
Defence Secretary John Healey has insisted more cash will be pumped into to bolstering the UK's air defences.
Writing in a foreword to SDR, Mr Healey said 'up to' £1bn would be invested in 'homeland air and missile defence' as well as the creation of a new cyber and electromagnetic warfare command.
The review also warned citizens to brace themselves for 'attempts to disrupt the UK economy, especially the industry that supports the armed forces, including through cyber attack, the interdiction of maritime trade, and attacks on space-based critical national infrastructure'.
Finally, it warned the UK would face a huge propaganda onslaught designed 'to manipulate information and undermine social cohesion and political will'.
As part of the new defence blueprint the Government is committing £1.5bn to set up at least six munitions factories, and will support the procurement of up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons.
Ministers unveiled plans to build six munitions factories in the UK and produce 7,000 long-range weapons, including attack drones and precision missiles
The review has set out plans to grow the British Army, renew the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal and expand the UK's school-aged cadet force to up to 250,000 to get the country ready for 'whole of society approach' to defence and resilience.
As part of the overhaul in military thinking, British fighter jets could soon carry nuclear weapons for the first time.
Army units based in Estonia will be equipped with hundreds of fearsome HX-2 kamikaze drones.
And more than £1.5billion in extra funding will go to military homes in response to the review.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned a 'step change in the threats we face demands a step-change in British defence to meet them'.
Sir Keir called the review a 'radical blueprint' that would drive forward investments in shipbuilding, drone technology and cyber defences.
'The threats we face are no secret. War in Europe. New nuclear risk,' the premier wrote in the Sun on Sunday.
'The Kremlin is working hand in hand with its cronies in Iran and North Korea. We face daily cyber attacks.
'The Royal Navy has chased off Russian spy ships loitering in our waters.
'The RAF has scrambled to intercept Russian planes that menace our skies.'
Speaking on Monday, the PM added: 'We need to see the biggest shift in mindset in my lifetime to put security and defence front and centre – to make it the fundamental organising principle of government.'
However, the Conservatives criticised Labour, saying investment in munitions factories has been too slow and that the Treasury had held back the funds to achieve the PM's defence vision.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the Chancellor has used the SDR to put an 'effective freeze' on new orders for military kit.
'It's a bit rich of Labour to talk about 'always on' munitions production when procurement has been largely switched off for the past year,' he said.
He added: 'Of course, we welcome investment in new munitions factories, but we don't know when they will be ready, only that these orders should have been placed months ago.
'Ultimately, we need to see greater ambition for the pace and scale of rearmament our armed forces require, given the threats we face and the need to replace inventory gifted to Ukraine.
'That means three per cent of GDP by the end of this parliament, and Labour properly prioritising defence spending – instead of seeking to outspend Reform on welfare.'