Former UK army chief Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders also commented on the threat facing Britain, telling The Telegraph that he doesn't know "what more signals we need."
UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting warned that the country must prepare for war as Russia's hybrid warfare against NATO intensifies, writing his comments in the London-based newspaper The Telegraph on Saturday.
“My defining priority... is to make sure that this country is ready to fight and win a war," wrote Streeting. “To prevent the worst, we have to prepare for it. In the first instance, that means expanding our capabilities so our adversaries think twice about attacking us. Should that fail, we must ensure that Britain is ready for war.”
Streeting wrote that the United Kingdom must “be ready with our allies to fight and win,” warning that the country could face enemies able to attack it as early as 2030.
“Our adversaries’ willingness to harm us is not new," Streeting continued. "What has changed is their capacity. By 2030, their force strength and war economy could put them in a position to attack. That gives us a little over 1,000 days to complete our mission: be ready, with our allies, to fight and win."
He added that the UK government "will make sure it is mission accomplished.”
UK 'Be Ready' war preparation campaign underway
Streeting's warning follows the start of the UK's “Be Ready” campaign, which aims to prepare the country's citizens and residents for war by stocking at least three days of essential supplies ahead of time, according to The Telegraph.
Turning to debates in the UK regarding defense spending, Streeting wrote that he is "certainly willing to have them," but that “the Conservatives must face up to the fact that they left Britain with the smallest army since the Napoleonic Wars, missed every single recruitment target and oversaw plunging morale.”
“This Government is already delivering the biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War. I am 100 percent confident that under this Labour prime minister and chancellor we will meet our NATO spending target,” he wrote. “The public want to see us doing more and investing more. That comes with choices and trade-offs for government spending in other areas, so I feel sharply the responsibility on my department to use every penny wisely.”
World at least as dangerous as Cold War, former UK army chief says
Former UK army chief Gen. Sir Patrick Sanders also commented on the threat facing Britain, telling The Telegraph that he doesn't know "what more signals we need for us to realize that if we don’t act now and we don’t act in the next five years to increase our resilience."
“The world has become as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than it was in the Cold War, and so I always worry about the layers of security we have, but I worry more about our resilience, our ability to recover from things, from strikes, to protect our civilian population, to make sure the civilian population understands that these are no longer things that happen elsewhere; they could happen in the UK,” said Sanders.