The government has no clear “national defense plan” amid growing concerns of a “pre-war world,” the report said
Britain has no real national plan for the mobilization of its people, industry, or defense forces in the event of a war, Sky News reported on Wednesday, citing a number of defense sources.
The report comes as part of a series by the outlet to “explore how prepared” London is for the possibility of an armed conflict, as numerous government ministers have been warning that Britain is moving into a “pre-war world” amid mounting concerns about Russia, China, and Iran.
Sky News says it conducted interviews with multiple sources, including former senior officers and academics.
One of them was Keith Dear, a former regular Royal Air Force intelligence officer who worked as an adviser to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020 and 2021. Dear said that he had been unable to find any kind of detailed plan for war while in government.
“Such plans are essential not only to avoid scrambling disorder and early defeats, but also so that our adversaries, awed by our preparedness, are deterred from fighting in the first place,” he said.
“The problem is, there is no plan.”
The defense sources interviewed by Sky News discussed how the apparent lack of a national defense plan means that the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are not configured to fight an enduring war of survival. The same holds for the readiness of the civilian population and industrial base, they said.