Defence Secretary announces new Cyber and Eletromagnetic Command and £1 billion investment in pioneering battlefield system.

Defence Secretary John Healey personnel at MoD Corsham. MoD Crown Copyright.

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Pinpointing and eliminating enemy targets will take place faster than ever before, as the Government invests more than £1 billion to equip the UK Armed Forces with a pioneering battlefield system.

A new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command will also be established to put the UK at the forefront of cyber operations as part of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR). The announcements were made by Defence Secretary, John Healey MP on a visit to MOD Corsham, the UK military’s cyber HQ.

The Ministry of Defence will develop a new Digital Targeting Web to better connect Armed Forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster.

This pioneering digital capability will give the UK a decisive advantage through greater integration across domains, new AI and software, and better communication between our Armed Forces. As an example, a threat could be identified by a sensor on a ship or in space before being disabled by an F-35 aircraft, drone, or offensive cyber operation.

This follows the Prime Minister’s historic commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, recognising the critical importance of military readiness in an era of heightened global uncertainty.

Delivering this new Digital Targeting Web is central to UK efforts to learn lessons directly from the front line in Ukraine. When the Ukrainians achieved a step-change in lethality early in the war – by being able to find the enemy, target them and attack quickly and at scale - it allowed them to stop the encircling Russian advance.

The Ministry of Defence will establish a Cyber and Electromagnetic Command. It will sit under General Sir James Hockenhull’s Command and follows the MOD having to protect UK military networks against more than 90,000 ‘sub-threshold’ attacks in the last two years. The Command will lead defensive cyber operations and coordinate offensive cyber capabilities with the National Cyber Force.

The new Command will also harness all the Armed Forces’ expertise in electromagnetic warfare, helping them to seize and hold the initiative in a high-tempo race for military advantage - for example, through degrading command and control, jamming signals to drones or missiles and intercepting an adversary’s communications.

A key Russian cybercrime syndicate responsible for aiding merciless ransomware attacks around the world has been targeted by new UK sanctions.

The vision of the UK’s National Cyber Strategy (NCS) 2022 is that the UK will continue to be a leading, responsible and democratic cyber power, able to protect and promote its interests in and through cyberspace in support of national goals. The NCS 2022 set out how the UK will continue to adapt, innovate, and invest in order to pioneer a cyber future with the whole of the UK.

The UK has sanctioned 7 Russian cyber criminals through coordinated actions with the US government.