The UK lacks a plan to defend itself from a military attack, MPs have warned in a report published today.
The challenges were laid bare in a parliamentary committee’s report and comes just weeks after military experts raised concerns in The Herald over the threat posed to Scotland in particular by Russia.
Ed Arnold, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said Faslane and RAF Lossiemouth would be Moscow’s first UK targets because disabling them would cripple the alliance’s ability to track Russian submarines.
"RAF Lossiemouth hosts all of our Poseidon P-8 maritime patrol aircraft – effectively a lot of Nato’s capability to track Russian submarines in the North Sea and the North Atlantic comes from Lossiemouth,” he told The Herald in September.
“Lossiemouth is absolutely a target of the Russians, whether that is through a strike, which is more difficult, or more likely, a direct attack from the land.”
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MPs on the Commons Defence Committee issued the stark warning about the UK’s ability to fight a war and meet its Nato obligations in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“The UK lacks a plan for defending the homeland and overseas territories,” the MPs warned as they called for the public to be given more information about the scale of the threat and the response that is required.
The committee’s chairman, Labour’s Tan Dhesi, said: “Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, unrelenting disinformation campaigns, and repeated incursions into European airspace mean that we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand.”
He added: “We have repeatedly heard concerns about the UK’s ability to defend itself from attack. Government must be willing to grasp the nettle and prioritise homeland defence and resilience.
“In achieving this, Government cannot shy away from direct engagement with the public.
“Wars aren’t won just by generals but by the whole of the population getting behind the armed forces and playing our part.
“There needs to be a co-ordinated effort to communicate with the public on the level of threat we face and what to expect in the event of conflict."
Meanwhile, at least 13 sites including one in Grangemouth have been identified for new factories to make munitions and military explosives, with Defence Secretary John Healey expecting the arms industry to break ground at the first plant next year.
In a speech in London today Mt Healey will say the “new era of threat” presents an economic opportunity with at least 1,000 new jobs to be created.
He will confirm the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has funded a number of feasibility studies for new energetics factories – producing explosives, pyrotechnics and propellants – to kickstart high-volume production in the UK for the first time in nearly two decades.
Potential sites for the “factories of the future” include Grangemouth, Teesside in north-east England and Milford Haven in Wales.
Mr Healey will say: “For too long our proud industrial heartlands saw jobs go away and not come back. We are changing that. Bringing new hope. This is a fundamental shift from the failed approach of the past.
“This is a new era of threat but the opportunity of this new era is a defence dividend from our record investment, measured in good jobs, thriving businesses, new skills for the British people.”
In June, the MoD committed £1.5 billion of additional defence investment for energetics and munitions
The UK Government is committed to building at least six new munitions and energetics factories before the next election, creating at least 1,000 jobs.
Mr Healey will also announce the opening of two new drone factories this week in Plymouth and Swindon.
“We are making defence an engine for growth, unambiguously backing British jobs and British skills as we make the UK better ready to fight and better able to deter future conflicts,” the Defence Secretary will say.
“This is the path that delivers national and economic security.”
Mr Healey will say that, at next week’s Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will ensure there will be no return to the “hollowed out and underfunded” armed forces of the past.
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