The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will unify all of its intelligence services under a single organisation, as part of its strategy to combat “escalating threats” from adversaries of the UK.
Units from the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force, UK Space Command, and Permanent Joint Headquarters will join to form the Military Intelligence Services (MIS).
The reform will speed up how information is “gathered, analysed and shared” across the military, after hostile intelligence activity against the MoD rose more than 50% in the past year, the ministry said.
The launch of the MIS follows recommendations from the Strategic Defence Review, a major review of the armed forces that was published in June.
The MIS will be established alongside a new Defence Counter-Intelligence Unit, consolidating counter-intelligence professionals in one unit to “disrupt and deter hostile activity more effectively”.
Their work will be supported by a new Defence Intelligence Academy, offering specialised training in key intelligence disciplines.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the overhaul will put Britain at the “leading edge of military innovation”.
“This gives us sharper insights into what our adversaries might do next, so we protect our forces, safeguard critical infrastructure, and deter changing threats,” he said.
Speaking at the launch event of the MIS at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire, Alistair Carns, Minister for Armed Forces, said that the “shadow of war is knocking on Europe’s door”, and warned that the continent no longer faces “wars of choice”, but “wars of necessity”.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Carns also urged Nato nations to spend more on defence to “increase our lethality”, and reduce dependence on the US.
The announcement comes a week after the publication of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, which the MoD said made clear that foreign intelligence services are now “operating far beyond traditional espionage norms”.
Russia’s main military intelligence agency, the GRU, was sanctioned in its entirety by the UK government following the release of the inquiry.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the findings were “a grave reminder of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent lives”.
The UK is currently committed to increase defence spending to 2.6% of GDP by 2027, which the MoD says is the largest “sustained” rise since the end of the Cold War.
Speaking in Berlin on Thursday, Nato chief Mark Rutte warned that the Kremlin could attack an allied country within the next five years.
“We must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured,” he said in a stark warning.
The Royal Navy this week said that it had tracked a Russian submarine through the English Channel, the latest in a series of instances of Russian naval activity in UK waters.
The government says there has been a 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening UK waters in the past two years – though Russia says the UK is the one being provocative.
