Britain faces its most dangerous security environment in decades and must prepare for the possibility of longer and more demanding conflicts, the country’s most senior military officer has warned, as Russia increases pressure on UK and NATO defences.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, Chief of the Defence Staff, said the risks facing Britain were greater than at any point in his 35-year military career since the Cold War.
“This is the most dangerous time I have known in my working life. In my 35-year career, this is the most dangerous period that I have known. And the risks and threats to this country are greater than I have known since the Cold War.”
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Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Knighton said the assumptions that had shaped British military planning over the past two decades were increasingly outdated. The armed forces had traditionally prepared for conflicts that were relatively short and geographically contained, he said, whereas the war in Ukraine had demonstrated the potential scale and duration of future confrontations.
“Over the last two decades, we have been preparing for shorter wars and for conflicts that are confined and limited. What we need to ready ourselves for is potentially much greater, longer conflicts, as we’ve seen in Ukraine.”
Knighton also argued that the implications extended beyond the armed forces, suggesting that a more contested security environment could require changes in national priorities.
“It is important that society and all of us recognise and understand that, and that may mean that we need to make different choices and different priorities.”
His comments amount to a call for a broader shift in Britain’s approach to national security, rather than simply an increase in military equipment. The Strategic Defence Review published last year was described by Knighton as a “call to arms”, while he highlighted drones and autonomous systems as technologies likely to reshape warfare.
He said such systems “are going to become increasingly important in the future of warfare” and argued that Britain must “invest more and enhance our capability” in response.
The warning comes as Russia continues to test Nato air and security defences. Knighton said Russian military activity around the UK had become more persistent, including the use of long-range aviation.
“Russia is probing, challenging, testing our defences. We’ve seen more long-range aviation from Russia. These are strategic aircraft that will go well into our own airspace. We’ve seen as many in 2026 as in 2025.”
He said Moscow’s activity extended beyond conventional military operations to include cyber attacks, efforts to smuggle technology and what he described as “reckless sabotage and assassination attempts”.
“Russia is definitely raising the stakes and risks crossing a line.”
For Britain and its allies, Knighton said the objective was to strengthen deterrence by improving both military capability and readiness before a crisis escalated.
“As a consequence, it is important that we enhance the capability and the readiness of our armed forces alongside our allies to deter our adversaries from doing something daft.”
The comments underline the growing emphasis within Western militaries on readiness for sustained conflict, technological adaptation and resilience beyond the traditional battlefield. For Britain, the challenge is not only how much it spends on defence, but how quickly it can translate investment into deployable capability.
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