UK at war within 1000 days

[HumbleStumble]

Wes Streeting has said Britain must be ready for war in 1,000 days. This combined with the advice to stockpile while you can is highly inflammatory and worrying. AIBU to think that if there is a specific threat he should be specific? If it's a nuclear threat then he should say. We are lucky to have access to what is effectively a bunker but what can you do if you live in a bedsit in the London borough of suburbia?

And we do have some conventional weapons, both air fired and submarine launched cruise missiles. We could do a lot of damage to Russia’s command and control structure without going nuclear.

The UK's air-launched cruise missile is the Storm Shadow. While the exact number is classified, stocks are thought to be very low, partly because of the number given to Ukraine and the generally low magazine depth in the RAF for all weapons. Its range is 550km, so the RAF would have to fly within 300 miles of the target to launch it, which for some targets would require entering Russian airspace. Finally, it's subsonic, which makes it fairly easy to shoot down, compared with a ballistic missile like the American ATACMS.

While the UK in theory has sub-launched cruise missiles (the Tomahawk, which has much greater range than Storm Shadow), only the Astute-class subs carry them. All five of the RN's Astute-class subs are currently tied up at the pier awaiting maintenance and repair funding. None are seaworthy.

So this capability is a bit less threatening to the Russians than you might assume.

And what, exactly, is the evidence for this Russian asset in the White House?

@MissConductUS ,

Thank you for an interesting post. We clearly need our existing assets to be in working order.

However, if we are at war with Russia, entering their airspace wouldn’t be much of an issue.

I still find the whole scenario almost impossible to countenance as it is lose/lose for everyone. It’s not like Russia would gain anything at all with hitting some UK targets with conventional missiles.

Does the asset need to know that they are an asset?

And what, exactly, is the evidence for this Russian asset in the White House?

Everytime Trump speaks to Putin he comes back and announced more crap against his western ex-allies. Every time.

Unfortunately it isn't about what we think the advantage or disadvantage of Russia attacking (by hybrid warfare or open warfare) is.

It's what they think the advantage is.

Honestly they have a vastly overinflated idea of our capacity, but they seem to really see the UK as a major threat.

Someone used to keep a list of threats of nuclear bombing that the (more high - profile) Russians made. By 18 months in to the Ukraine invasion, the threats were up into three figures.

I think myself that hybrid warfare is the big danger, but they do indeed have considerable military capabilities left despite Ukraine. They are stockpiling military material and moving drone manufacturing to China. It was reported in the last two weeks that Russian 'trawlers' have been mapping out undersea Internet cables again, etc.

Putin is vindictive and holds a long memory for grudges. He also wants to make Russia a superpower again, and reducing the US's dominance and weakening the UK and EU is one of the several ways he can do it.

It's modest but underground and luckily came with the house. Has the basics, electricity, water storage and room for wine ! Interesting that 2/3 people feel Streeting should give vague general statements!

Well as you'll be getting tipsy in your bunker you need not worry.

Might be a bit dark if Putin nixes the electrics.