Britain to create cyber command after 'hard-learned lessons of Putin's war'

The United Kingdom will create a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command to protect military networks from tens of thousands of cyberattacks, the Ministry of Defense is expected to announce in its strategic review next week, Bloomberg reports.

The new command will also jam enemy signals that control drones and missiles, and intercept military communications.

"The hard-won lessons of Putin's illegal war in Ukraine leave us under no illusion that future conflicts will be won by forces that are better connected, better equipped and more innovative than their adversaries," said UK Defence Secretary John Healy, commenting on the country's new security and defence strategy.

The new funding is part of the government's commitment to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. It is the first announcement as part of a long-awaited defense policy review.

Journalists, citing the Ministry of Defense, note that the new strategy should "end the devastation" of the British Armed Forces and will focus on innovation in the military industry over the next decade.

The $1.4 billion investment will also go towards creating a "Digital Targeting Network" by 2027.

It is intended to bring together British weapons systems to speed up decisions on targeting enemy threats. The idea is that a threat could be detected by a sensor on a ship or in space, and destroyed by a fighter jet or drone thanks to improved information sharing between units.

However, as journalists note, Britain may face pressure to further increase defense spending due to the discussion of a new NATO target at the summit in June.

It considers a benchmark of 5% of GDP, of which 3.5% is for "hard" defense and 1.5% is for military technology, including cybersecurity and border protection.

• On May 5, it became known that Britain and Germany would jointly develop a new "deep precision strike" weapon.
• On May 14, 2025, it became known that Britain had developed underwater drones with the AI-based Lura surveillance system, which would allow it to identify Russian submarines.