UK military launches major wartime exercise, launching attack and surveillance drones after imaginary Kremlin attack on Baltic states as tensions between east and west worsen daily
British forces have war-gamed launching ‘deep-strike’ missions to face off a Russian attack on Europe – from inside a London underground tube station.
They were war-gaming what would happen if they had to help defend the Baltic states in the opening shots of a Europe-wide conflict. In the emergency nightmare the year would be as soon as 2030 as UK forces led a NATO HQ in Estonia after Kremlin forces assaulted the Baltic states.
US forces joined the UK troops in a disused part of Charing Cross Tube station, pretending it is a bunker somewhere in Estonian capital Tallinn.
In the imaginary exercise, they hunch over laptops and observe big screens, using Artificial Intelligence quickly to identify Russian targets to be hit in response. Among their arsenal are drones and missiles plus hi-tech jamming equipment and they have requisitioned city infrastructure to be used in wartime.
The UK-led side faked dealing with 5,000 surveillance and attack drones daily in a bid to beat off attack from a battle-experienced Russian enemy. Codenamed Operation Arcade Strike the force was led by the UK-led Nato Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC).
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It is thought the British military has enough drones to fight at pace for a week, although Ukraine is believed to get through thousands every day. US general Christopher Donahue, head of Nato’s Land Command, warned NATO must move swiftly to prepare for the possibility in real life.
He said: “Legacy forms of mobilisation and movement are no longer a given Nato advantage, and a lack of protection in depth will be used against us.”
British ARRC commander Lt Gen Mike Elviss said that the exercise was needed for NATO practise finding and destroying Russian forces heading into war. He explained: “In this and every scenario we rehearse for, Russia has two critical advantages.
“First, they can mass combat power at the point of their attack, whereas we have an obligation to defend everywhere, all the time. Second, if an attack is to happen, it will be launched by them, so they will have the initial momentum. Our answer to this lies, in part, in our concept of fighting by recce-strike.
“Today’s deployment is a mission rehearsal. We rehearse this not just to be good at it, but because the adversary is watching and we want him to know that we are ready for the challenge.” It comes in an alarming week when Vladimir Putin’s troops carried out a war exercise in Belarus using their nuclear forces on land, sea and in the air.
And the UK MoD revealed two Russian jets had come within yards of hitting an RAF spy plane containing a crew of British troops over the Black Sea. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to weaken NATO by withdrawing troops from Germany, whilst saying he will send thousands more to eastern Europe.
His erratic threats on NATO have emboldened the Kremlin and worried European countries into stepping up defence spending.
