New command will counter ‘continual and intensifying’ cyber warfare, says Healey

The Government will set up a cyber command to counter a “continual and intensifying” level of cyber warfare as part of the strategic defence review, the Defence Secretary has announced.

It will also invest more than £1 billion into a new “digital targeting web” to be set up by 2027 to better connect weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster.

It could identify a threat using a sensor on a ship or in space and then disable it using an F-35 aircraft, drone, or offensive cyber operation, the Ministry of Defence said.

The cyber and electromagnetic command will be led by General Sir Jim Hockenhull to defend against cyber attacks and co-ordinate offensive moves with the national cyber force.

Defence Secretary John Healey said that the Government is responding after some 90,000 cyber attacks from state-linked sources were directed at the UK’s defence over the last two years.

“Certainly the intensity of the cyber attacks that we’re seeing from Russia stepped up, and cyber is now the leading edge, not just of defence, but of contests and tension between countries,” he told reporters during a visit to MOD Corsham.

He said there is a “level of cyber warfare that is continual and intensifying” that requires the UK to step up its capacity to defend against it.

The command will also work on electromagnetic warfare – for example, through degrading command and control, jamming signals to drones or missiles and intercepting an adversary’s communications.