The UK must rebuild its military and get the whole country ready for war as the threat of conflict with a nuclear power like Russia or China is real, a major defence review warns.

It described what might happen should a hostile state start a fight, saying this could include missile strikes against military sites and power stations across the UK, sabotage of railway lines and other critical infrastructure and attacks on the armed forces.

Politics latest: Britain must be ‘battle-ready’, says PM

In a devastating verdict on the state of Britain’s defences, the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) said today’s armed forces are “not currently optimised for warfare”, with inadequate stockpiles of weapons, poor recruitment and crumbling morale.

“The international chessboard has been tipped over,” a team of three experts that led the review wrote in a foreword to their 140-page document.

“In a world where the impossible today is becoming the inevitable tomorrow, there can be no complacency about defending our country.”

The review, which was commissioned by Sir Keir Starmer last July, made a list of more than 60 recommendations to enable the UK to “pivot to a new way of war”.

They include:

• Increasing the size of the army by 3,000 soldiers to 76,000 troops in the next parliament. The review also aims to boost the “lethality” of the Army ten-fold, using drones and other technology.
• A 20% expansion in volunteer reserve forces but only when funding permits and likely not until the 2030s.
• Reviving a force of tens of thousands of veterans to fight in a crisis. The government used to run annual training for the so-called Strategic Reserve in the Cold War but that no longer happens.
• Embracing new technologies such artificial intelligence, robots and lasers. The paper said the UK must develop ways to defend against emerging threats such as biological weapons, warning of “pathogens and other weapons of mass destruction”.
• The possibility of the UK buying warplanes that could carry American nuclear bombs to bolster the NATO alliance’s nuclear capabilities. The review said: “Defence should commence discussions with the United States and NATO on the potential benefits and feasibility of enhanced UK participation in NATO’s nuclear mission.”
• The expansion of a cadet force of children by 30% and offering a “gap year” to people interested in sampling military life.
• Increasing the size of the army by 3,000 soldiers to 76,000 troops in the next parliament. The review also aims to boost the “lethality” of the army 10-fold, using drones and other technology.
• New investment in long-range weapons, submarines, munitions factories and cyber warfare capabilities.

General Sir Richard Barrons, part of the review team and a former senior military officer, described the vision as “the most profound change” to UK defences in 150 years.

But there were some notable gaps – likely caused by limited finances.

This includes only a brief mention of bolstering the UK’s ability to defend against cruise and ballistic missiles – a key weakness but one that would be very expensive to fix.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Strategic Defence Review was a “blueprint to make Britain safer and stronger, a battle-ready armour-clad nation, with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come”.

Defence Secretary John Healey, writing in a foreword to the document, said “up to” £1bn would be invested in “homeland air and missile defence” as well as the creation of a new cyber and electromagnetic warfare command.

The review was drawn up with the expectation that defence spending would rise to 2.5% of GDP this parliament – up from around 2.3% now – and then to 3% by 2034. The government has pledged to hit 2.5% by 2027 but is yet to make 3% a cast iron commitment.

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The reviewers said their recommendations could be delivered in 10 years if that spending target is reached but they gave a strong signal that they would like this to happen much sooner.

“As we live in such turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster,” the team said.

“The plan we have put forward can be accelerated for either greater assurance or for mobilisation of defence in a crisis.”

The review described the threat posed by Russia as “immediate and pressing”.

It said China, by contrast, is a “sophisticated and persistent challenge”.

It pointed to Beijing’s growing missile capability that can reach the UK and said the Chinese military’s nuclear arsenal is expected to double to 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

The other two reviewers were Lord George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary, and Fiona Hill, a Russia expert and former foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump.

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The review team warned the post Cold War-era of relative peace has ended and a time of contest, tension and conflict has returned.

Adding to the pressure, the US – by far the most powerful member of the NATO alliance – is focusing more on the threat it sees from China.

“Changes in the strategic context mean that NATO allies may be drawn into war with – or be subject to coercion by – another nuclear armed state,” the review said.

“With the US clear that the security of Europe is no longer its primary international focus, the UK and European allies must step up their efforts”.

The review set out how defence is not only the responsibility of the armed forces because countries – not just the professional military – fight wars.

It said: “Everyone has a role to play and a national conversation on how we do it is required… As the old saying goes, ‘If you want peace, prepare for war’.”

Sky News and Tortoise will launch a new podcast series on 10 June that simulates a Russian attack on the UK to test Britain’s defences, with former ministers and military chiefs playing the part of the British government.

Clement Attlee was the Labour prime minister credited with creating the welfare state.

On Monday, at a shipbuilding yard in Glasgow, Sir Keir Starmer presented himself as a Labour prime minister who wants to be credited with turning the UK into a warfare-ready state, as he spoke of the need for the UK to be prepared for the possibility of war at the launch of his government’s Strategic Defence Review.

The rhetoric couldn’t be clearer: Britain is on a wartime footing.

The UK’s armed forces must move to “war-fighting readiness” over the coming years, the UK faces a “more serious and immediate” threat than anytime since the Cold War, and “every citizen must play their part”.

Politics latest: Britain must be ‘battle-ready’

The prime minister promised to fulfil the recommendations of the 10-year strategic defence plan, which will be published in full on Monday afternoon.

But what he refused to do was explain when he would deliver on spending 3% of GDP on defence – the commitment necessary to deliver the recommendations in the Strategic Defence Review.

PM is sticking plasters over wounds

His refusal to do so blunts his argument. On the one hand, the prime minister insists there is no greater necessity than protecting citizens, while on the other hand, he says his ability to deliver 3% of spending on defence is “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.

This is a prime minister who promised an end to “sticking plaster politics”, who promised to take difficult decisions in the interest of the country.

One of those difficult decisions could well be deciding, if necessary, to cut other budgets in order to find the 3% needed for defence spending.

Instead, the prime minister is sticking plasters over wounds.

After voters lashed out at Labour in the local elections, the Starmer government announced it was going to look again at the cut to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.

There is an expectation, too, that Sir Keir is planning to lift the two-child cap on benefits. Refusing to lift the cap was one of his hard choices going into the election, but now he is looking soft on it.

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What choices is Starmer prepared to make?

That’s why I asked him on Monday what the choices are that he’s going to make as prime minister. Is his choice properly-funded defence, or is it to reverse winter fuel cuts, or lift the two-child benefit cap?

If he needs to be the prime minister creating the warfare state, can he also deliver what voters and his own MPs want when it comes to the welfare state?

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To hit the 3% target, Sir Keir would have to find an extra £13bn. That’s difficult to find, and especially difficult when the government is reversing on difficult decisions its made on cuts.

For now, the prime minister doesn’t want to answer the question about the choices he’s perhaps going to make. But if he is really clear-eyed about the security threat and what is required for the UK to become ready for war, it is question he is going to have to answer.

Organised criminal gangs are increasingly using rented houses and flats to operate illegal cannabis farms – and police say it is putting the lives of innocent neighbours at risk.

The gangs often use crude methods to bypass electricity meters to avoid paying for the high levels of energy the farms require, creating an increased fire risk.

Rival gangs also carry out raids on each other’s farms – a practice known as ‘taxing’ – carrying out “significant violence” to anyone who gets in their way, police say.

Greater Manchester Police detected 402 cannabis farms between May 2024 and April 2025, and Sky News was given access to an operation by its officers at a semi-detached house in a quiet suburban street in Wythenshawe.

Inside, officers found one room full of cannabis plants and another ‘drying room’ with the drug packaged up and ready to be distributed. The street value was estimated in the tens of thousands of pounds.

Outside, officers found evidence that the electricity meter had been bypassed. ‘Abstracting’ is the offence of dishonestly using, wasting or diverting electricity. One person inside the property was arrested.

“The electricity gets bypassed in order to avoid big electric bills,” Inspector Bree Lanyon said.

“Because a substantial amount of electric is required to run the lights, the ventilation, the heat, everything else that’s required in the cannabis farm, the abstract is done in a haphazard way and it can cause fires within the properties.”

She continued: “We’ve seen a lot of fires recently in premises that have been set up as cannabis farms, because of the way the electricity is set up. It’s not safe and the neighbouring residence could be at risk if that property is burning down.”

The risks posed by cannabis farms were highlighted by the death of seven-year-old Archie York in 2024. He was killed when chemicals being used in a cannabis factory caused an explosion in the family’s block of flats. The drug dealer responsible was jailed for 14 years.

Police say gangs employ low-level operatives, known as gardeners, to manage and protect farms, who will often plead guilty to drug offences and accept the punishment to keep police off the trail of those controlling the operation.

The use of rented properties – sometimes through rogue landlords – also makes detection more difficult.

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“The vast majority are organised crime gangs,” said Detective Inspector Paul Crompton, from GMP’s serious and organised crime group. “It infuriates me when we take action against these farms and people say ‘It’s only cannabis’.

“What we see with cannabis farms is that rival organised crime groups will actively target those and break in and take the products by force. You’ve got a risk of potentially people being kidnapped or killed without us knowing anything about them.

“Make no bones about it, there’s massive amounts of money to make and they would rather just go and take that cannabis and sell it for themselves. They’ll do significant, violence against anybody that gets in the way, whether that’s the gardener, the police or residents who might get in the way.”

Police say landlords need to be aware of the risks and even the chief executive of the British Landlords Association has fallen victim.

One of Sajjar Ahmad’s properties was badly damaged by those using it for an illegal cannabis farm. “I can only explain it as horrific,” he said.

“Our members, when they’ve experienced the problem with the cannabis farm, they are shocked. They didn’t know it could happen. They are not aware of the telltale signs.

“They have the same regrets as what I experienced – you need to carry out regular inspections and, if somebody is offering you a larger rent, then you should question that.”