Britain Isn't Ready For A Real War - Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE

Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army officer and CBRN specialist, argues the UK’s armed forces have struggled to recover from decades of post-Cold War disinvestment and a counterinsurgency focus that eroded conventional warfighting capability. He cites steep reductions in Army numbers and tank fleets, says recruitment has been harmed by bureaucracy, and claims some units have had to buy their own drones for training. He also describes a £28bn gap between what a strategic defence review implies is needed and what current plans fund, including what he portrays as shortfalls in anti-drone protection for the Challenger 3 tank.

The conversation ranges over the Ukraine war and the rapid evolution of drone and electronic warfare, including claims about Ukrainian innovation in cheaper long-range strike systems and balloon-borne decoys. De Bretton-Gordon also alleges Russia has been using chloropicrin chemical agents at scale on the front line in Ukraine, and warns that the principal threat from Russia to the UK is now hybrid and asymmetric activity, including espionage and cyber.

On CBRN risks, he downplays the likelihood of a “dirty bomb” causing mass casualties but stresses the economic disruption it could trigger. He elevates biological threats as the most serious, arguing that advances in synthetic biology and AI could make engineered pathogens more plausible, and states his view that Covid-19 was an accidental lab release from Wuhan rather than a deliberate attack.

• He says the UK military is rebuilding after roughly two decades of disinvestment and morale problems following Iraq and Afghanistan drawdowns.
• He claims a £28bn funding gap is already visible in anti-drone readiness, including units buying their own drones and limited defensive suites for Challenger 3.
• He argues Ukraine demonstrates a shift towards autonomous and drone-centric warfare, with rapid battlefield innovation outpacing Western procurement cycles.
• He alleges Russia has used chloropicrin chemical agents on the Ukrainian front line for years, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• He downplays dirty-bomb lethality but says radiological contamination could impose enormous financial costs through decontamination and demolition.
• He warns biological weapons are underfunded and could be enabled by synthetic biology and AI, citing a Cambridge tabletop scenario about combining transmissibility and high mortality.
• He says he believes Covid-19 “must” have come from a Wuhan laboratory accident, not a wet-market spillover.