UK public awareness of military threat is ‘alarmingly low’

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The British public has an “alarmingly low” awareness of the threats facing the country, and the UK army is “inadequate” to meet its Nato commitments, the Lords defence committee has said.

In a hard-hitting report, released on Thursday, the committee said that even spending 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence — which the government has pledged to do — “may not be enough” to fix the military.

“The public’s awareness of the true state of the UK’s defence posture is alarmingly low [and] the mindset of a nation under genuine threat is absent,” it said.

The 73-page report, titled “Ukraine: a wake-up call”, will add pressure on ministers to boost defence spending, even as all departments, including the Ministry of Defence, face a budget squeeze.

Furthermore, the country’s air defences have “substantial vulnerabilities” against airborne threats such as ballistic missiles, and the UK defence industry is “unprepared” for a high intensity conflict, the House of Lords’ international relations and defence committee said.

“We are unprepared to respond to the heightened global threat environment and, in particular, meet the growing threat from Russia,” the peers warned.

Sir Keir Starmer, UK prime minister, has described British defence policy as “Nato first”, referring to its commitment to the military alliance of European countries and North America.

However, the report said it was “concerned that the army cannot, as currently constituted, make the expected troop contribution to Nato”.

Starmer has launched what he has called a “root and branch” review of the UK’s military capabilities to ensure its armed forces are able to counter rising geopolitical threats.

The review, which is being led by former Nato secretary-general Lord George Robertson, who initially contributed to the paper, is due to report by July 2025, when it will set out plans for how defence expenditure might rise from 2.3 per cent of GDP now to 2.5 per cent.

But the report said this timeline was too slow, warning the government “cannot afford to delay setting defence priorities and articulating how much money will be available”.

It also said that it “remains to be seen” if the mooted boost in defence spending was “a suitable increase”.

“Unless significant efficiencies are found, laser-sharp priorities are set and hard trade-offs are made, an increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP may not be enough to meet the UK’s growing defence needs,” it said.

Unlike many of the recent warnings about the UK military, the Lords report stressed the need to communicate to the public that defence spending can no longer be treated as an extra, as it often has been since the end of the cold war.

The government needs to develop a defence “proposition that resonates with citizens, emphasising the importance of national security in their daily lives and moving beyond the notion that defence is solely the military’s responsibility”, it said.