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Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
UK will be FORCED to ramp up defence spending after Keir refused to commit to funding despite ‘battle ready' promise
A defence source said Britain's ministers have 'been in denial' WAR READY UK will be FORCED to ramp up defence spending after Keir refused to commit to funding despite 'battle ready' promise Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BRITAIN will be steamrollered into ramping up defence spending when Nato allies agree to a target of 3.5 per cent of GDP at a summit later this month. Labour's pledge to 'lead in Nato' would be blown to smithereens if Britain is left behind, a top defence insider said. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 Sir Keir Starmer vowed to get Britain 'battle ready' Credit: PA 3 Starmer will discuss the NATO target this week Credit: Getty 3 Donald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence Credit: Reuters Top Brass have been baffled by Kier Starmer's refusal to say when he will hit Labour's target of spending 3 per cent. The PM vowed to get Britain "battle ready" yesterday with new doomsday nukes and robotic fighter jets – but refused to say how he will fund it. Donald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence – and he has threatened to abandon nations that fail to pay their way. Nato's chief Mark Rutte has successfully lobbied allies to try and hit Trump's target by spending 3.5 per cent on core defence – including troops, tanks and ships – and 1.5 per cent on security and infrastructure, including spy agencies. Read more on News BLAZE ARREST Fourth man arrested over 'arson attack' at homes linked to Sir Keir Starmer Strategic Defence Review: Five Key Defence Pledges Up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines to be built under the Aukust pact £15bn investment in the UK's nuclear warhead programme to maintain and modernise the deterrent New Cyber Command to be established, with £1 billion invested in digital warfare capabilities Up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons to be purchased, supporting 800 defence jobs More than £1.5bn in extra funding to repair and renew armed forces housing France's President Macron has backed Rutte's demands. And Germany is already on course to hit the target within the next few years. A defence source said Britain's ministers have 'been in denial' about the looming Nato summit and pledges key allies will make. Starmer is expected to discuss the Nato target in a crunch meeting this week. A defence source said: 'Do we want to be lumped with Spain as the only allies that are complaining?' At the launch a landmark Strategic Defence Review Defence Secretary John Healey said: 'Our defence policy is Nato First. China & Russia will use drones 'the size of insects' to spy on UK & commit untraceable murders, ex-Google futurist warns 'We will end the hollowing out of our Armed Forces and lead in a stronger, more lethal Nato.' Labour has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2027. Starmer said: 'We have set the ambition to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions.' But pressed on what that meant, he said: 'I'm not going to indulge in the fantasy politics of simply plucking dates from the air.' Defence Secretary Healey said the 3 per cent target was a "certainty But he backtracked 24-hours later, insisting it was merely an "ambition". Britain's three biggest weapons programmes – including the Trident 2 nuclear deterrent, the new sixth generation fighter jets and new hunter killer submarines – will cost at least 3 per cent of GDP, a former defence minister told The Sun.
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- The Irish Sun
UK will be FORCED to ramp up defence spending after Keir refused to commit to funding despite ‘battle ready' promise
BRITAIN will be steamrollered into ramping up defence spending when Nato allies agree to a target of 3.5 per cent of GDP at a summit later this month. Labour's pledge to 'lead in Nato' would be blown to smithereens if Britain is left behind, a top defence insider said. Advertisement 3 Sir Keir Starmer vowed to get Britain 'battle ready' Credit: PA 3 Starmer will discuss the NATO target this week Credit: Getty 3 Donald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence Credit: Reuters Top Brass have been baffled by Kier Starmer's refusal to say when he will hit Labour's target of spending 3 per cent. The PM vowed to get Britain "battle ready" yesterday with new doomsday nukes and robotic fighter jets – but refused to say how he will fund it. Donald Trump has demanded allies spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence – and he has threatened to abandon nations that fail to pay their way. Nato's chief Advertisement Read more on News Strategic Defence Review: Five Key Defence Pledges Up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines to be built under the Aukust pact £15bn investment in the UK's nuclear warhead programme to maintain and modernise the deterrent New Cyber Command to be established, with £1 billion invested in digital warfare capabilities Up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons to be purchased, supporting 800 defence jobs More than £1.5bn in extra funding to repair and renew armed forces housing And next few years. Most read in The Sun A defence source said Britain's ministers have 'been in denial' about the looming Nato summit and pledges key allies will make. Advertisement Starmer is expected to discuss the Nato target in a crunch meeting this week. A defence source said: 'Do we want to be lumped with Spain as the only allies that are complaining?' At the launch a landmark Strategic Defence Review Defence Secretary China & Russia will use drones 'the size of insects' to spy on UK & commit untraceable murders, ex-Google futurist warns 'We will end the hollowing out of our Armed Forces and lead in a stronger, more lethal Nato.' Advertisement Labour has pledged to increase defence spending from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 2.5 per cent by 2027. Starmer said: 'We have set the ambition to reach 3 per cent in the next Parliament, subject to economic and fiscal conditions.' But pressed on what that meant, he said: 'I'm not going to indulge in the fantasy politics of simply plucking dates from the air.' Defence Secretary Healey said the 3 per cent target was a "certainty Advertisement But he backtracked 24-hours later, insisting it was merely an "ambition". Britain's three biggest weapons programmes – including the Trident 2 nuclear deterrent, the new sixth generation fighter jets and new hunter killer submarines – will cost at least 3 per cent of GDP, a former defence minister told The Sun. Strategic error ON the face of it, there is good news in Labour's Strategic Defence Review. Up to 12 submarines to head off threats from Russia at sea. New weapons and munitions factories to replace those stocks depleted by donations to Ukraine. But will the billions needed to pay for all these new fighter jets, drones and hi-tech weaponry actually be found? Defence chiefs say it will take investment of three per cent of GDP. Yet Keir Starmer yesterday refused to put a timeline on achieving that. By 2027 it will still be only 2.5 per cent — when experts say we need five per cent to re-arm properly. If the Prime Minister has doubts about where to find the cash, he could try diverting money from less pressing areas — like binning Net Zero and free hotels for migrants. A pity, too, that his Government is handing Mauritius £30billion on top of surrendering the Chagos Islands. At the very least, the PM's uncertainty also throws the delivery time of new projects into doubt. New subs, for example, already won't be serviceable until the late 2030s. Sir Keir says the nation is on a war footing as of now. But it cannot take decades before we are ready to actually fight one.
Scottish Sun
26-05-2025
- Scottish Sun
China & Russia will use drones ‘size of insects' to spy on West & commit untraceable murders, ex-Google futurist warns
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) KILLER camouflage drones the size of insects could be used by Russia and China to commit untraceable murders, an ex-Google futurist warns. Tracey Follows, who has also worked with Amazon and Meta, warned they could even carry deadly pathogens and be used to spy on the UK. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 The warning echoes the plot of an episode of Black Mirror featuring robot bees Credit: NETFLIX 3 The Black Mirror episode features swarms on drone insects known as 'ADIs' And it is a prediction which is a chilling echo of the Black Mirror episode "Hated in the Nation". The near future sci-fi show envisioned of world where robot bees designed to pollinate flowers could be hijacked to commit murder. The Future of You author told The Sun: 'In time, one expects a drone to have the situational awareness to carry out an attack autonomously without a human in the loop. 'The big question is what's the payload on these drones, what are you actually attaching to the drone? 'Increasingly, over the last four or five years, I've been reading about viruses and how you can potentially attach a pathogen to these sorts of weapons. 'So not only can you identify somebody personally, you can then attack them with a virus, for example.' Terrifyingly, she warned it could open the door for rogue nations like Russia to assassinate targets on UK soil without leaving a trace. Moscow was infamously accused of poisoning ex-Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury in 2018. Skirpal and his daughter, Yulia, survived but local woman Dawn Sturgess was inadvertently killed when she sprayed what she thought was perfume on her wrists. Russia denies any involvement. Before that, Skripal was convicted of spying for Britain in 2006 and jailed for 13 years. Watch terrifying vision of secret Chinese drone mothership that can launch vast AI killer swarms - as it's set to take to skies in days But in future, drone attacks could make it impossible to identify a culprit. Follows, who founded consultancy service Futuremade, said: 'If you can camouflage these micro weapons, and if you've got technology that's so advanced that the enemy country doesn't know what's happened, you can't really trace exactly what's happened. 'If you're adding a virus as a payload onto a drone, it could be a completely new virus. 'You may not know what that virus is in your country and it's attacked somebody individually because it's autonomously targeted and activated against that person." Follows, ranked in the world's Top 30 Futurists by Global Gurus, added: 'I don't think it's just Russia and China that one has to worry about. 'I think it's anybody, in any country, in any region who is starting to integrate AI into the military and into these lethal weapons.' Drone technology continues to advance at an alarming rate as the AI explosion shows no signs of slowing down. This month, chilling images emerged of a new Chinese 'mothership' drone carrier that can launch swarms of mini-drones. The small drones would then work together to 'swarm' enemies. State broadcaster CCTV said its inaugural mission will launch on Monday. Chinese drone carrier that can launch deadly swarms by James Moules, Foreign News Reporter A NEW Chinese drone carrier that can launch deadly swarms against enemy targets could take to the skies within days. This unmanned "drone mother ship" is expected to take off for its first mission as part of a terrifying drive to boost the Chinese air force's combat capabilities. Named Jiu Tian - meaning "nine heavens" - this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) would add to China's ability to "swarm" enemies. This tactic involves releasing vast swarms of drones that work together to overwhelm enemy air defence systems. A video widely circulated on X shows a visualisation of the aircraft's capabilities - demonstrating its ability to release vast swarms of deadly drones. China's state broadcaster CCTV confirmed its inaugural mission on Monday. The jet-powered drone will start by undergoing a series of tests before it is fully deployed by the Chinese air force. Boasting a carrying capacity of up to six tonnes of ammunition and small-sized drones, the UAV has a maximum range of 4,350 miles and altitude of 50,000 feet. Swarms of drones, including kamikaze UAVs, can be released from both sides of the aircraft's belly. Terrifyingly, it is reportedly able to fly above many medium-range defence systems currently deployed around the world. READ MORE HERE Follows warned that not only are drones becoming better at identifying targets, but people are simply becoming easier to track down. She said: 'I spoke to Erik Prince. He's the biggest kind of private military contractor in the world, and the founder of Blackwater. 'Among other things, he co-founded a company called Unplugged, which brings privacy to your mobile phone. So it doesn't collect any data.' She added: 'So he's very aware of communications technologies and how they can be used for surveillance. 'He talked to me about the way in which drones can do precision targeting now if the data is available on your AI, a sort of advertising ID, if you like. 'So if you've got stuff on your phone and you've got an identification on your phone, if you're carrying that with you, the drone can identify that and that can be set to attack.' As technology continues to advance rapidly, so too do security and privacy concerns. Follows warns that drones may also pave the way to record personal conversations without consent. 3 Could China and Russia really use insect-size drones? What happened to Sergei Skripal? FORMER Russian double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok in his adopted hometown of Salisbury in March 2018. The nerve attack, which also poisoned his daughter Yulia, sparked a diplomatic row between the UK and Russia. Sergei was a Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted in 2006 of spying for the United Kingdom. Skripal was accused by Russian prosecutors of working for MI6 in the late 1990s and passing secrets to the British using a James Bond-style spy rock. At the time, he was serving in the Russian Ground Forces and was nicknamed "the Spy with the Louis Vuitton bag" because of his taste for luxury goods. In 2006 he was released in a spy swap and moved to the UK where he settled in Salisbury. Sergei's wife Liudmila died from cancer in 2012 and in 2017 he lost his older brother and his 43-year-old son Alexandr. The ex-KGB spy and his daughter Yulia, 36, were exposed to a nerve agent and fell gravely ill after having a pizza lunch in Salisbury on Sunday, March 4, 2018. They were found slumped on a bench in a "catatonic state" and spent weeks critically ill in hospital. Anti-terror police investigated the poisoning and discovered the agent used was military-grade Novichok, made in Russia. Russia denied that their special services were involved in the attack, which sparked a diplomatic spat and the expulsion of embassy staff. Police believe the pair were exposed to the nerve agent after it was left on the front door of his home. Worse, they could even film us without us being aware we're being filmed at all. That would therefore spark a race with the technology used to detect them. Asked if drones the size of flies will one day be able to film us, she added: 'They probably will be able to, yes. 'DARPA (a US military research agency) used to have a program called SHRIMP and they put it out as a competition for researchers, engineers and computer scientists to come back and say, how could you do these tiny micro drones? 'The problem was with the energy as they're so small. You can't get the energy in them for them to be transported for a long enough distance or carry out the actions you want them to. 'So they had this short range micro micro robotics program. And that was in 2019, and it's all gone very quiet since then. 'I'm always suspicious when things go quiet because I know that it's going into sort of patent territory. 'People are working on things in the research process, and then something will come out. There is absolutely no reason why they can't be doing short range conversation recording."
The Irish Sun
26-05-2025
- The Irish Sun
China & Russia will use drones ‘size of insects' to spy on West & commit untraceable murders, ex-Google futurist warns
KILLER camouflage drones the size of insects could be used by Russia and China to commit untraceable murders, an ex-Google futurist warns. Tracey Follows, who has also worked with Amazon and Meta, warned they could even carry deadly pathogens and be used to spy on the UK. 3 The warning echoes the plot of an episode of Black Mirror featuring robot bees Credit: NETFLIX 3 The Black Mirror episode features swarms on drone insects known as 'ADIs' And it is a prediction which is a chilling echo of the Black Mirror episode "Hated in the Nation". The near future sci-fi show envisioned of world where robot bees designed to pollinate flowers could be hijacked to commit murder. The Future of You author told The Sun: 'In time, one expects a drone to have the situational awareness to carry out an attack autonomously without a human in the loop. 'The big question is what's the payload on these drones, what are you actually attaching to the drone? READ MORE ON DRONES 'Increasingly, over the last four or five years, I've been reading about viruses and how you can potentially attach a pathogen to these sorts of weapons. 'So not only can you identify somebody personally, you can then attack them with a virus, for example.' Terrifyingly, she warned it could open the door for rogue nations like Russia to assassinate targets on UK soil without leaving a trace. Moscow was infamously accused of poisoning ex-Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, in Salisbury in 2018. Most read in The US Sun Skirpal and his daughter, Yulia, survived but local woman Dawn Sturgess was inadvertently killed when she sprayed what she thought was perfume on her wrists. Russia denies any involvement. Before that, Skripal was convicted of spying for Britain in 2006 and jailed for 13 years. Watch terrifying vision of secret Chinese drone mothership that can launch vast AI killer swarms - as it's set to take to skies in days But in future, drone attacks could make it impossible to identify a culprit. Follows, who founded consultancy service Futuremade, said: 'If you can camouflage these micro weapons, and if you've got technology that's so advanced that the enemy country doesn't know what's happened, you can't really trace exactly what's happened. 'If you're adding a virus as a payload onto a drone, it could be a completely new virus. 'You may not know what that virus is in your country and it's attacked somebody individually because it's autonomously targeted and activated against that person." Follows, ranked in the world's Top 30 Futurists by Global Gurus, added: 'I don't think it's just Russia and China that one has to worry about. 'I think it's anybody, in any country, in any region who is starting to integrate AI into the military and into these lethal weapons.' Drone technology continues to advance at an alarming rate as the AI explosion shows no signs of slowing down. This month, chilling images emerged of a new Chinese 'mothership' drone carrier that can launch swarms of mini-drones. The small drones would then work together to 'swarm' enemies. State broadcaster CCTV said its inaugural mission will launch on Monday. Chinese drone carrier that can launch deadly swarms by James Moules, Foreign News Reporter A NEW Chinese drone carrier that can launch deadly swarms against enemy targets could take to the skies within days. This unmanned "drone mother ship" is expected to take off for its first mission as part of a terrifying drive to boost the Chinese air force's combat capabilities. Named Jiu Tian - meaning "nine heavens" - this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) would add to China's ability to "swarm" enemies. This tactic involves releasing vast swarms of drones that work together to overwhelm enemy air defence systems. A video widely circulated on X shows a visualisation of the aircraft's capabilities - demonstrating its ability to release vast swarms of deadly drones. China's state broadcaster CCTV confirmed its inaugural mission on Monday. The jet-powered drone will start by undergoing a series of tests before it is fully deployed by the Chinese air force. Boasting a carrying capacity of up to six tonnes of ammunition and small-sized drones, the UAV has a maximum range of 4,350 miles and altitude of 50,000 feet. Swarms of drones, including kamikaze UAVs, can be released from both sides of the aircraft's belly. Terrifyingly, it is reportedly able to fly above many medium-range defence systems currently deployed around the world. Follows warned that not only are drones becoming better at identifying targets, but people are simply becoming easier to track down. She said: 'I spoke to Erik Prince. He's the biggest kind of private military contractor in the world, and the founder of Blackwater. 'Among other things, he co-founded a company called Unplugged, which brings privacy to your mobile phone. So it doesn't collect any data.' She added: 'So he's very aware of communications technologies and how they can be used for surveillance. 'He talked to me about the way in which drones can do precision targeting now if the data is available on your AI, a sort of advertising ID, if you like. 'So if you've got stuff on your phone and you've got an identification on your phone, if you're carrying that with you, the drone can identify that and that can be set to attack.' As technology continues to advance rapidly, so too do security and privacy concerns. Follows warns that drones may also pave the way to record personal conversations without consent. 3 Could China and Russia really use insect-size drones? What happened to Sergei Skripal? FORMER Russian double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok in his adopted hometown of Salisbury in March 2018. The nerve attack, which also poisoned his daughter Yulia, sparked a diplomatic row between the UK and Russia. Sergei was a Russian military intelligence officer who was convicted in 2006 of spying for the United Kingdom. Skripal was accused by Russian prosecutors of working for MI6 in the late 1990s and passing secrets to the British using a James Bond-style spy rock. At the time, he was In 2006 he was released in a spy swap and moved to the UK where he settled in Salisbury. The ex-KGB spy and his daughter They were found slumped on a bench in a "catatonic state" and spent weeks critically ill in hospital. Anti-terror police investigated the poisoning and discovered the agent used was military-grade Novichok, made in Russia. Russia denied that their special services were involved in the attack, which sparked a diplomatic spat and the expulsion of embassy staff. Police believe the Worse, they could even film us without us being aware we're being filmed at all. That would therefore spark a race with the technology used to detect them. Asked if drones the size of flies will one day be able to film us, she added: 'They probably will be able to, yes. 'DARPA (a US military research agency) used to have a program called SHRIMP and they put it out as a competition for researchers, engineers and computer scientists to come back and say, how could you do these tiny micro drones? 'The problem was with the energy as they're so small. You can't get the energy in them for them to be transported for a long enough distance or carry out the actions you want them to. 'So they had this short range micro micro robotics program. And that was in 2019, and it's all gone very quiet since then. 'I'm always suspicious when things go quiet because I know that it's going into sort of patent territory. 'People are working on things in the research process, and then something will come out. There is absolutely no reason why they can't be doing short range conversation recording."
Scottish Sun
26-05-2025
- Science
- Scottish Sun
Terrifying ‘spy' laser that can read text smaller than a grain of rice from a mile away unveiled by China
The target must be illuminated with lasers, so it may not be suitable for surveillance scenarios where stealth is required SUPER VISION Terrifying 'spy' laser that can read text smaller than a grain of rice from a mile away unveiled by China Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SCIENTISTS in China claim they have developed a laser that can read millimetre-sized text from nearly a mile away. That's smaller than a grain of rice. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Observing fine details from long distances with telescopes and high-power lenses brings its challenges Credit: L.-C. Liu et al. 2 The laser system reconstructing 1mm-sized letters (right) located far away Credit: L.-C. Liu et al. The researchers say the new laser-based system can pick up small details from 1.36km away (0.85miles) that standard telescopes and binoculars would miss. A typical telescope-based system at the same distance would only capture shapes around 42milimetres in size, researchers wrote in their study, published in the journal Physical Review Letters. That is far too large to make out small writing. Observing fine details from long distances with telescopes and high-power lenses brings its challenges. Current long-distance reading systems require precise alignment of lasers and telescopes, making it tricky to pick out small features. Distortion from the air can blur and scatter light over long distances, which can warp the view. However, researchers took a new approach by on the way light hits a surface, rather than focusing on the image itself. This method is called active intensity interferometry. 'Through outdoor experiments, we have successfully imaged millimeter-scale targets located at 1.36km away," the study authors wrote. "Achieving a resolution enhancement by about 14 times over the diffraction limit of a single telescope." China & Russia will use drones 'the size of insects' to spy on UK & commit untraceable murders, ex-Google futurist warns The researchers believe this method is 'promising for high-resolution optical imaging and sensing'. Although, it also has a few limitations to overcome - for example, it needs a clear line of sight to the object. The target must be illuminated with lasers, so it may not be suitable for surveillance scenarios where stealth is required. Instead, the laser could be used by archaeologists to examine ancient carvings on cliffs without climbing them, and help environmental researchers monitor distant wildlife habitats. The team has plans to improve the control of the laser, so they are easier to direct. The researchers may also install artificial intelligence (AI), which could help reconstruct images more accurately.
