The report, seen by The Times, warned that Russian weapons, including rocket launchers and air defence systems, were more powerful than their British equivalents, giving Mr Putin a “significant capability edge”. A planned £3.5 billion fleet of lightly armoured British army vehicles was said to be “disproportionately vulnerable” to Russian mortar and rocket fire in the event of a war.
Marked “official-sensitive”, the assessment by the army’s warfare branch also warned that the UK and its Nato allies were “scrambling to catch up” with Russia’s ability to use electronic means to hijack enemy drones and disrupt other military transmissions.
It described Russia’s mastery of tactics including jamming and hacking as a “real game changer”, which helped to level the playing field between Moscow and the West by threatening Nato aircraft, GPS-guided weapons and the ability of soldiers on the ground.
Physical weapons are not the only tools in Russia’s arsenal that outmatch the West. The report said that soldiers were at risk of being targeted over Facebook and Twitter. They should be made more aware of the threat posed by manipulative tactics and it should “become the norm” to leave phones and iPads behind when they went on exercises, the paper recommended. Details of US troops operating in Ukraine have previously been hacked and used to smear them.
The British government has always maintained that its armed forces have the capabilities to match Russia. Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, told MPs in May that the alliance would “face up to any kind of threat in the future”. (end of excerpt)
Click here for the full story, on The Times website.
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