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Business Post
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Post
Paul Johnston: A step change in defence readiness for UK as stark threat of Russia emerges
I joined the Ministry of Defence in September 1990, shortly after the publication of 'Options for Change', the UK government's response to the end of the Cold War, with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact the previous year and the imminent unification of Germany. Fast forward a third of a century and it's clear we are in a post-post-Cold War world. The assumptions we made then about a new era of rules-based cooperation and indeed of NATO partnership with Russia have been brutally shattered. China is a sophisticated and enduring challenge to many of the West's interests. Extremism is a scourge in many parts of the world. The world is a bleaker, less stable, more complicated place than at any time in my professional life. It was against that this backdrop that soon after the UK election last year Keir Starmer invited three external experts – former NATO Secretary General George Robertson, a retired General Richard Barrons and Fiona Hill, distinguished academic and former US NSA official - to work with our Ministry of Defence on a radical assessment of what UK Defence requires in the decade ahead. Their review was published last week. Its conclusions are stark. The threat we now face is more serious and less predictable than at any time since the Cold War, with the reality of war in Europe, growing Russian aggression, not just against Ukraine, nuclear risks, and daily cyber attacks. Technology is exploited by our adversaries as fast as we seek to adopt it. Hostile nations and non-state actors cooperate more closely together. The Review pulls no punches. It identifies Russia as an 'immediate and pressing' threat to Britain and our Allies. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine made clear its malign, neo-imperialist ambitions, its intent to re-establish its sphere of influence and to disrupt the international order. The modernisation and expansion of Russia's armed forces pose an enduring threat to the West, despite its capabilities being seriously degraded through the war in Ukraine, by the bravery and resilience of Ukraine's armed forces and people. The conclusion is inescapable. As the international security environment deteriorates, the UK will redouble its efforts within NATO and step up its contribution to Euro-Atlantic security more broadly. Deterrence in, and defence of, the Euro-Atlantic region is a core role for UK Defence. Our forces contribute daily – and silently - to deterrence and we will strengthen them to create an integrated force optimised for warfighting to protect and defend NATO territory. No-one in Britain's government relishes having to contemplate conflict, but it was long ago said 'if you want peace prepare for war'. We will do so with a comprehensive all-of-government response, accepting all the Review's recommendations, focussing on readiness, resources and reform. The review marks a significant shift in our deterrence and defence posture: moving to 'warfighting' readiness, to deter threats and strengthen security in the Euro Atlantic area. We will have a 'NATO first' defence policy and strengthen our leadership within the Alliance. Defence, like charity, begins at home and we will establish a more lethal 'integrated force' equipped for the future and for strengthened homeland defence. We will invest in new submarines, drones, armoured vehicles, but also in cyber, AI and the cutting-edge innovation technologies that will keep us ahead of our enemies. Options for Change's 'peace dividend' released billions of pounds for wider public spending in the 1990s. That's not an option today. Rather, we are investing in a defence and deterrence dividend, the largest sustained increase to UK defence spending since the end of the Cold War. We will increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, and aim to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament, ie by 2034. This is also an investment in UK industry, skills, research and innovation. Our Defence Investment Plan will seize new technology opportunities and maximise the benefits of defence spending to grow the UK economy, creating jobs and prosperity through a new partnership with industry, and through radical procurement reforms. For too long, defence investment, particularly defence procurement, has led to sub-optimal results. Projects come in behind time and over budget. This is not unique to the UK or to the defence sector. But it is indefensible, and our Ministers are committed to tackling it. Overlong and complex processes will be streamlined, with innovation and procurement measured in weeks not years. We will make UK Defence a more attractive market for private capital, by supporting and investing in start-ups and new technology companies in areas such as AI, quantum, and Space, and we'll remove the bureaucracy and red tape that are barriers to collaboration with Defence suppliers. We will establish a new £400m (€475m) UK Defence Innovation fund to support and help grow companies throughout the whole of the UK. 'NATO First' does not mean 'NATO only'. The agreement of the UK/EU Security and Defence Partnership on 19 May was an important moment. As our leadership of the coalition of the willing on Ukraine has shown, we intend working cooperatively on European Security with the EU and bilaterally with European partners. This includes, of course, with Ireland. We committed to developing our defence relationship at the UK/Ireland Summit in March, and we're ready to do so, respecting Ireland's long-established military neutrality, but also the shared understanding that the world has changed and we are all, in our different ways, obliged to react. Paul Johnston is the current British Ambassador to Ireland
Gulf Today
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
How can Europe deter Putin? Revive the ‘Reforger'
When I was a junior officer during the Cold War, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises — perhaps the largest in history — were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO's ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out between the alliance and the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact nations. 'Reforger' was a loose acronym of 'Return of Forces to Germany.' The first Reforger was held in 1969, and they ran annually through 1993, just after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Forces from every country in the alliance participated, although the bulk of them were American — drawn from the 400,000 US troops stationed in Europe at the height of the Cold War. At the time, only 16 countries were in NATO (today there are 32). The event was not just an exercise — it was an actual planning and execution demonstration of NATO's defensive war plans. It required the forces to 'marry up' with their huge stockpiles of equipment on NATO's eastern flank, called Prepositioning of Materiel Configured in Unit Sets (POMCUS) sites. US Marines were also part of the flow of troops toward the potential combat lines, and the Navy's Sixth Fleet (focused on the Mediterranean) and Second Fleet (covering the North Atlantic) participated from sea. As a lieutenant junior grade onboard the US aircraft carrier Forrestal in the fall of 1980, I remember our participation in air sorties in support of ground operations. Even though we knew it was a drill, we took it with deadly seriousness; the intent was to be prepared to 'fight tonight,' as the saying went in those days. With the demise of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, Reforger exercises were deemed unnecessary. But given Russian President Vladimir Putin's willingness to invade his neighbors, we should ask whether it is time to bring Reforger back. If so, what might the exercises look like in today's world? And are the NATO allies up to taking a larger role? The reason for the original Reforger exercises was simple: to create deterrence in the minds of the Soviets. The sight of 150,000-plus allied troops, hundreds of combat aircraft and dozens of warships helped keep Moscow from getting any ideas about further conquests in Central and Western Europe. Today, three things argue strongly for a new Reforger series. First is Moscow's two decades of territorial aggression — particularly the invasions of Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014 and 2022). Putin has also sought to undermine free elections in various European countries and used hybrid warfare tactics to intimidate nations from Moldova to Armenia. Russia has threatened NATO's Baltic states and is building up offensive capabilities on the border of new alliance member Finland. A second reason for a new Reforger series is that Putin has turned his country into a war economy, devoting more than 7% of GDP to military spending (double the US level) and pouring 35% of his annual budget into financing the war in Ukraine. He is also recruiting mercenaries from around the world and has inveigled Kim Jong Un of North Korea to send him some 10,000 troops. Based on the rope-a-dope he is playing in negotiations with President Donald Trump over Ukraine, Putin seems unlikely to cease and desist anytime soon. Third, Europe is finally waking from a long period of denial about the threat Moscow presents on its doorstep. The US allies are boosting military spending and seem ready to put together a major annual exercise to show Putin that they have the capacity and the will to fight if attacked. Ursula von der Leyen, the leader of the European Union, and the new secretary general of NATO, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, recognise that the moment is critical. A new Reforger series could take some lessons from its illustrious predecessors. It should include forces from each of the 32 allies, including contingents from even the smallest nations like Iceland and Luxembourg. This time, the bulk of the troops, aircraft and warships should come not from the U.S. but from Europe, particularly France, Germany and Poland. Overall command and control should be vested in NATO's supreme allied commander and run from the nuclear-proofed command bunker in Mons, Belgium — a place I know well. Like the previous iterations, it should not be simply practice or a tabletop drill, but a real-time manifestation of current war plans giving commanders at all levels real authority over their troops. A potential breakdown of responsibilities in command and control: Turkey for land forces; Britain for maritime; Germany for air and missile defense; Belgium for special forces; Italy to protect the southern flank and the Netherlands on the northern flank. The US should focus not on manpower but on what it does better than any other country: providing intelligence, cybersecurity overwatch, satellite and space connectivity, artificial intelligence, and advanced drones and other unmanned vehicles. The US Sixth and Second Fleets should be involved, but as support for carrier strike groups from the UK, France and Italy. Above all, like its ancestor Reforger, the new exercise should focus on the swift flow of logistics.
Bloomberg
21-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
How Can Europe Deter Putin? Revive the ‘Reforger'
When I was a junior officer during the Cold War, the biggest North Atlantic Treaty Organization military training exercises — perhaps the largest in history — were annual drills called Exercise Reforger. The goal was to ensure NATO's ability to deploy troops rapidly to West Germany if war broke out between the alliance and the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact nations. 'Reforger' was a loose acronym of 'Return of Forces to Germany.' The first Reforger was held in 1969, and they ran annually through 1993, just after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Forces from every country in the alliance participated, although the bulk of them were American — drawn from the 400,000 US troops stationed in Europe at the height of the Cold War.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Czech Republic: Are arms, not cars, the new economic engine?
Representative Image (AI-generated) The Czech Republic has become the country with the highest per capita production of cars in the world over the last thirty years. 2024 was a record year with more than 1.4 million manufactured vehicles in the country of 10 million inhabitants. This is an increase of almost 4 per cent year-on-year. However, production plummeted by 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2025. The main reason for this was the drop in demand in the West, which was triggered by the problems in the European automotive industry, the slow transition to electromobility, and US tariffs. Meanwhile, the country's arms industry is booming. "The defense industry can become a new engine of the Czech and European economy," Danuse Nerudova , member of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets, told DW. "It can utilize the supply capacities and workforce freed up by the automotive sector, boost economic growth and strengthen our security at the same time." Arms as new economic engine? Petr Zahradnik, a Czech economist and advisor to the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels, is somewhat more skeptical. "Czech arms factories are experiencing golden times, that's true," he told DW. Yet, he adds that he doesn't believe that arms will replace the automotive sector as the new engine of the Czech economy. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trending in in 2025: Local network access control [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo "I also don't want to see weapons production replace commercial production," he said. Even before World War I , the territory of today's Czech Republic was known as center of arms production. For decades, then-Czechoslovakia was also one of the world's leading arms producers. For years, arms accounted for around 10 per cent of all Czechoslovakian exports. Also domestic demand was driven by the country's heavily armed army of several hundred thousand men until the late 1980s. However, the end of the Warsaw Pact — a defense treaty and military alliance between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics signed in 1955 — as well as the general disarmament in the early 1990s, which was accompanied by a significant reduction in the military budget, hit Czech arms manufacturers hard. Czechoslovakia's last major armaments order was an export contract for 250 T72 tanks to Syria in 1991. Then, in 1992, Czechoslovakia split into two individual states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This also led to a division of the defense industry. The production of tanks and heavy machinery was mainly in Slovakia, while the aircraft industry, the production of small arms, ammunition, radar systems and, above all, small arms was primarily located in the Czech Republic. Not entirely successful privatizations, the reduction of Czech defence spending to 1 per cent of the country's GDP, as well as the professionalization and downsizing of the army to only around 20,000 soldiers considerably weakened the Czech defence industry in the years after the split. Growth factor Ukraine war: Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Czech arms factories massively increased their output again. In particular, the modernization of tanks, and the production of ammunition, military vehicles, self-propelled artillery howitzers, drones, radar equipment and machine guns have been booming since. 40 per cent of the Czech arms factories' production goes to Ukraine, where joint ventures have been established as well. In total, up to 90 per cent of Czech-produced arms are exported. At the same time, purchasesby the Czech army are also on the rise. In 2024, Czech defense spending reached 2 per cent of the country's GDP and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced that in a few years' time, it will amount to 3 per cent. New jobs for automotive employees: The boom is set to continue for the next few years. This year, ammunition manufacturer STV Group will increase its production of large-caliber artillery ammunition, which it mainly supplies to Ukraine, from 100,000 units to 300,000. The Czech PBS Group also plans to double its production of engines for missiles and drones. In turn, the number of employees in these companies is also growing. STV Group is planning to hire 1,000 additional employees in the near future. According to its annual report, the Czechoslovak Group, the largest Czech arms manufacturer, which includes the Tatra military car plant as well as ammunition production, already employs 14,000 people. By comparison, the largest automotive group Skoda-Auto employs around 20,000 people at its main plant in Mlada Boleslav. However, as the less demanding production of electric cars will lead to a reduction in the number of employees in the future, Skoda Auto boss Klaus Zellmer told the German print magazine Automobilwoche in late February 2025 that his company, which currently employs 41,000 people, was planning to reduce its workforce by 15 per cent. Many of these employees are likely to find new jobs in the defense business. According to Czech recruitment agencies, they will not require any major retraining when they switch industries.
Chicago Tribune
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Lewis and Clark expedition begins in Illinois
Today is Wednesday, May 14, the 134th day of 2025. There are 231 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 14, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition, organized to explore the Louisiana Territory as well as the Pacific Northwest, began its journey near present-day Hartford, Illinois. Also on this date: In 1607, Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, was established by members of the Virginia Company. In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner successfully inoculated 8-year-old James Phipps against smallpox by using cowpox matter. (Smallpox would be declared the first fully eradicated human disease in 1980.) In 1948, the independent state of Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv by David Ben-Gurion, who became its first prime minister. In 1955, representatives from eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, signed the Warsaw Pact in Poland. (The pact was dissolved in 1991.) In 1961, Freedom Rider civil rights activists were attacked by violent mobs in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama. In 1973, NASA launched Skylab, the first American space station, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In 2022, an 18-year-old white supremacist wearing body armor opened fire in a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people before being taken into custody. (The gunman, Payton Gendron, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in February 2023.) Today's Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Pérez is 83. Filmmaker George Lucas is 81. Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis is 74. Musician David Byrne is 73. Actor Tim Roth is 64. Actor Cate Blanchett is 56. Filmmaker Sofia Coppola is 54. Former NFL running back Frank Gore is 42. Actor Amber Tamblyn is 42. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is 41. Former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski is 36. Actor Miranda Cosgrove is 32.
