Britain’s last military force dedicated to defending the homeland was disbanded in 1992, after NATO leaders hailed a “promising era” of peace in Europe at the end of the Cold War and the government began scaling back military spending.
More than three decades later, Britain is again preparing for potential attacks on its soil.
With Secretary General Mark Rutte of NATO telling allies this month that “conflict is at our door,” Russia saying it is “ready” for war with Europe and President Trump’s increasingly vocal hostility toward European leaders, the British government is developing what it calls a “whole of society approach to deterrence and defense.”
It says that a wide-ranging home defense program will bring together the military, police and government departments to prepare for multiple scenarios. While a land invasion is not considered likely, military experts at the Royal United Services Institute, a British defense research institute, said the war in Ukraine and a spate of hybrid attacks in Europe demonstrated the possibility of assaults on critical infrastructure, through sabotage and drones.
Some military experts and lawmakers think the government is not moving fast enough.