The Strategic Defence Review places cyber and electronic warfare centre-stage but it remains unclear how ambitions on the digital battlefield will be resourced.
The forthcoming UK Cyber and Electromagnetic Command (CyberEM) outlined in the Strategic Defence Review could be a much-needed pillar of modernisation. It follows a line of thinking, pre-dating Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, where electronic warfare (characterised by rigid hardware) and cyber operations are increasingly entwined.
If the past is a guide, we have a long way to go. Four years ago, Future Soldier promised to boost the Army’s electronic warfare (EW) capability ‘100%’, while UK doctrine from 2018 highlights the ‘imperative’ to master the ‘convergence’ of cyber and electromagnetic activities (CEMA).
This has not translated into reality, either in equipment or training. A well-identified problem is a lack of digital skills not only in the MOD but across the defence industry. Plans to address this may not be bold enough.
Ukraine’s CEMA lessons pose worrying questions for the command if the British Army faced a ‘fight tonight’ scenario. The problem is attracting talent while upskilling CEMA personnel in the Army – which could lose operators to ‘the domain lead’,
CyberEM Command. For this new vision, the pipeline for specialists is thin, with 32 scheduled for training at Shrivenham this year. For context, 13 Signal Regiment was re-formed around a core of roughly 250 specialists. For the new “cyber pipeline” at Shrivenham, “recruitment into cyber roles in 2025 will initially be through the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, with the British Army joining for subsequent recruitment campaigns from early 2026.”
CyberEM Command will deploy contractors to conflicts as a Digital Warfighter Group alongside soldiers. Bolstering Army generalist ability and specialisation in this field has been identified as a serious near-term problem, so it is vital that this fundamental requirement is not lost amid reorganisation.
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