EUROPE is not prepared for the deadly new age of warfare, a former Cobra chief has warned.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a reassessment of warfare by the Western nations, according to Colonel Richard Kemp who shared his insights with The Sun.
As hotbeds of conflict explode around the world in Ukraine and the Middle East, modern weapons are changing the rules.
The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence has led to the development of autonomous weapons systems that can operate without human intervention, like unmanned drones and potentially even jets or tanks in the future.
These are less predictable – and can’t account for certain things that trained officials can.
As battlefield tech continues to develop, chemical and biological weapons will doubtlessly follow too – opening up a host of chilling possibilities.
And Colonel Kemp, who led Brit forces in Afghanistan, said Europe is not prepared for a new dawn of warfare.
Colonel Kemp highlighted the significance of the current conflict in Ukraine, stating that it represents a rare occurrence in Europe since World War II, where two substantial uniformed armies are engaged in direct confrontation.
“And that requires a different kind of mentality.
“What we’re seeing… is an example of a conflict that is going to have a winner and a loser – much more stark than we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“It’s not just the difference between an insurgency and a state-on-state campaign.
“It’s the development in weapon systems – and the two most important weapon systems that have been developed and proliferated.
“These are precision long-range missiles and drones.”
His comments come after Ukraine for the first time launched US ATACMS missiles into Russia on November 11 – and British Storm Shadow rockets just two days later.
Putin, left snarling by Kyiv’s use of Western long-range rockets, has since retaliated with rocket and drone attacks against the embattled country.
Ukraine had been lobbying Western allies to allow use of their missiles for years, and relied heavily on savvy drone warfare to hold back Russian forces.
This is a step change. And it’s not just about the use of long range missiles and drones – it’s about defence against those things
Colonel Richard Kemp
Col Kemp said: “They [drones and missiles] weren’t really of any great significance in either Afghanistan or Iraq. There were, of course, short range missiles used frequently in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
“But this is a step change. And it’s not just about the use of long range missiles and drones – it’s about defence against those things.
“I can remember when I first joined the Army – we were preparing to fight back the Russians in Germany with a large part of the Brit Army and the US Army.
“Other armies were deployed in Germany to fight back massed tank formations pouring across the inner German border.
“That kind of threat arguably doesn’t really exist anymore. It does in Ukraine – but it doesn’t exist in relation to our country.
“What does exist now, much more than ever before, is the potential to use large numbers of long-range precision guided missiles fired from Russia and drones fired over very long distances.”
Drones mysteriously appeared around three US air bases in the UK last week – sparking fears of a possible Russian threat given Putin’s anger at British Storm Shadow rockets striking his territory.
A fleet of “unmanned aerial devices” were seen over the £40m RAF airbase set to house American nuclear weapons.
The Sun understands the RAF deployed their ORCUS counter drone weapons which can jam the signal to hostile drones and let friendly forces take over controls.
But Col Kemp said we should remain aware of “swarms” of drones, which is “becoming more possible”.
“To have large scale, drone swarms powered by artificial intelligence, which threaten our country,” he added.
It’s a potentially very real threat for the future – directly targeting our homeland and potentially doing a great deal of damage to it
Colonel Richard Kemp
In a stark warning, Col Kemp said: “We don’t have the capability of defending against that.
“It’s a potentially very real threat for the future – directly targeting our homeland and potentially doing a great deal of damage to it.
“We’ve seen drones and missiles being used very, very extensively in the Middle East.
“Therefore, I think one of our focuses for the future needs to be on two things – developing our own offensive capabilities much more using drones and long range missiles.
“And secondly, a huge amount more emphasis on dealing with those attacks – using those systems on our own country.”
He added: “It’s reminiscent, in a way, of Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars, in which he had a concept of an Israeli Iron Dome-type conflict, to cover the US and Europe, but primarily focused against nuclear missiles, which obviously would present by far the greatest threat.
“But we need a comprehensive shield now in Europe against use of drones and missiles.
“And not just by Russia, but also by terrorist organisations.
“It certainly is not beyond the bounds of possibility for organisations like al-Qaida or the Islamic State to obtain these systems and fire them from a range of different places at us.”
‘WOEFULLY UNPREPARED’
The Sun previously reported how developments inside China’s People’s Liberation Army point to a slew of new technology being used in combat.
Xi’s forces appear to be looking at cognitive and biological weapons – designed to make their enemies fall asleep, impair alertness and damage decision-making.
Professor Anthony Glees, an intelligence and security expert at the University of Buckingham, spoke to The Sun about the future of war we are facing.
He said he feels “deeply anxious” about Europe’s preparedness as the landscape shifts to rely more heavily on drones or Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He said: “War will change. We are woefully unprepared for the shape of future war.”
Tesla CEO and right-hand man to incoming President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, has made some damning comments about traditional warfare in recent weeks.
As the new co-chair of a Department of Government Efficiency, essentially a cost-slashing task force, Musk railed against America’s most trusted fighter jets – the F-35s.
Above a video of a swarm of hundreds of drones, he wrote on his social media site X: “Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35.”
He added: “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people.
“This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes.
“And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed.”
Prof Glees said “He is right… the future of warfare is always going to be drones.
“It’s blindingly obvious that drones, warplanes that have no pilots are going to be a really important feature of warfare in the future.”
Inside the rise of drone warfare
By Iona Cleave, Foreign News Reporter
DRONES have been deployed in the war in Ukraine on an unprecedented scale as thousands are used daily to hunt down enemy forces, guide artillery and bomb targets – transforming modern land warfare.
Ukraine has become increasingly reliant on first-person-view (FPV) drones — nimble, target-seeking, kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Since early 2023, the cheap, explosive, flying machines have become one of Kyiv’s biggest success stories after its military ran perilously short on munitions due to long-stalled Western weapon shipments.
The attack UAVs have come to define the conflict, helped by constant streams of footage filmed onboard as they tail troops, blast Russian positions or smash into tanks worth millions with ruthless precision.
The potent quadcopters cost around £300, are largely made from off-the-shelf pieces of kit and as demand soars, an army of civilians are helping to assemble them in their homes.
Some are fitted with grenades or homebuilt bombs, others are used for reconnaissance missions to identify enemy positions and guide artillery fire.
Now, almost every fighting brigade in Ukraine has an assault drone company.
With the 600-mile front frozen in hellish trench warfare, the success of FPVs on the battlefield is “undeniable”, according to the commander of Ukraine’s attack drone operations.
The senior special forces officer “Arsenal” told The Sun the quadcopters-turned-munitions now successfully blitz Putin’s targets in three out of five operations.
And as the war moves into what Arsenal calls a more “technological phase”, he argued FPVs are increasingly vital to Ukraine’s success.
He said: “If Mavic (surveillance) drones are our eyes – for the adjustment of artillery fire, withdrawal of groups to positions, reconnaissance – then FPV drones are our sword, our strike force.”
Over two thirds of Russian tanks destroyed by Ukraine so far in 2024 have been taken out using FPV drones, a Nato official told Foreign Policy.
Their long-range capabilities also save countless lives as the drone operator can be stationed away from the frontline.
And drones are not just used on the battlefield, both Ukraine and Russia are hitting targets hundreds of miles deep into enemy territory using long-range UAVs.
They are highly cost effective means to blitz factories making weapons, military bases or energy facilities.
And yet, in a constant game of cat and mouse, both sides are developing increasingly sophisticated means of stopping drones using electronic warfare.
In response, Russia and Ukraine are racing to develop UAVs guided by AI instead of GPS that can easily be jammed.
Ukraine is counting on key allies to help in this mission and to send them more expensive, high-tech drones, but deliveries are not anywhere near the sufficient scale needed.
In 2023, Ukraine’s goal was to procure 200,000 drones. For 2024, Zelensky vowed they would build a million themselves.
Between January and February this year, officials revealed FPV production already totaled 200,000.
But he countered: “Of course you’re always going to need pilots. He’s quite wrong about that.
“You do still continue to need fighter planes, jets with pilots that can fire.
“I mean storm shadow, for example, is strapped to an aircraft, and that’s how it’s fired.”
Prof Glees insisted that despite developments in AI, remotely-powered weaponry or drone tech, we will “always need people”.
He said AI can never fully replace or match the quality of “boots on the ground”, because it will never have the “spirit or morale of an army”.
Yet he warned that countries like China, who have “always been ahead” in leading combat technology, will have an advantage.
“We’ve always underestimated the Chinese. In any case, we know the Chinese are very interested in subverting what we do here in the United Kingdom.”
He said he wants to see “our Government do far more to make sure that the British people understand whatever the future of warfare looks like”.
But he added: “The thing that won’t change is the readiness of the British people in our case to fight for their liberty.”
China’s ‘brain warfare weapons’
THE CCP Biothreats Initiative released a trove of research into the new weapons tech last year.
It laid out which tech China was working towards and what they were capable of – in an alarming indication of the future landscape of war.
The research shows Beijing is using a combination of cutting-edge tech with biological weapons to develop its arsenal.
They said the goal for China is to “create a powerful deterrent and asymmetric advantage”.
Unit 94969 and Unit 96812 – two military groups – are working on the weapons.
BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACES
A brain-computer interface is a system that links the brain’s activity to an external device like a computer.
Brain signals can be analyzed and turned into commands – causing the person to carry out a specific action.
GENETIC DRUGS
Pharmaceuticals designed to modify the genetic and physiological makeup of adversaries.
They can then target cognitive, emotional and behavioural traits.
SOFT-KILL RADIO WAVES
These use electromagnetic energy for non-lethal attacks, such as to induce drowsiness or cause cognitive impairment.
ANTI-SLEEP GLASSES
They can bolster the usefulness of their own troops – by promoting alertness and wakefulness.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
China has long been working on its use of AI for military purposes.
Experts have previously warned The Sun about the country’s use of AI to influence elections and target their enemies.
They even vowed to become the world leader in AI by 2030.
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
During the Cold War, China used biological warfare by weaponizing diseases like the plague, or cholera.
Concerns have long been expressed that the country continues to do so to this day.
