Skip to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Thailand News and Discussion Forum | ASEANNOW

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Become a member

Become a member

UK Military Chief Warns of Rising Threats to Britain

Britain is facing its most dangerous security environment since the Cold War, the head of the armed forces has warned, citing growing threats from Russia and the need to prepare for prolonged conflicts.

Get today's headlines by email image.png

Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton said the risks confronting the UK are greater than at any point during his military career. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he described the current period as the most dangerous he has known and said Russia was increasingly testing Western defences.

Knighton said Moscow had been "probing, challenging and testing" the UK's military capabilities through conventional and non-conventional means, including cyber activity, sabotage and assassination attempts. He warned that Russia was "raising the stakes" and risked crossing a dangerous threshold.

His comments come ahead of the long-awaited publication of the government's Defence Investment Plan, which is expected within weeks. The document will outline how defence equipment and infrastructure projects will be funded over the next decade. Originally scheduled for release in autumn 2025, the plan has been delayed several times.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Friday that the strategy would be published before the upcoming Nato summit. He said ministers had worked closely with the armed forces while developing the plan to ensure it met the country's security needs.

Calls for Faster Defence Spending

Knighton backed calls for higher defence spending, saying Britain needed to invest more rapidly to meet emerging threats.

"Exactly as the prime minister says, we need to spend more on defence and do it faster," he said, adding that ministers faced difficult decisions when balancing national priorities.

He expressed confidence that the government understood the seriousness of the security environment and was responding by increasing defence expenditure.

Russia's Growing Military Activity

The military chief pointed to increased Russian long-range aviation activity in the High North, including the Arctic region and surrounding areas. He said the number of Russian strategic aircraft operations observed in 2026 had already matched levels seen during the whole of 2025.

While Royal Air Force jets regularly intercept Russian aircraft approaching areas of interest to the UK, there have been no recent reports of Russian military planes entering British sovereign airspace.

Knighton said the Strategic Defence Review published last year should be viewed as a "call to arms". He argued that the UK military must move beyond planning for short, limited conflicts and prepare for longer wars similar to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Preparing for Future Warfare

He also highlighted the changing nature of warfare, saying drones and autonomous systems would play an increasingly significant role in future conflicts.

Knighton's remarks echo concerns raised earlier this year by former defence secretary Lord Robertson, who warned that Britain's security was "in peril" and criticised what he described as complacency among political leaders.

In an April speech, Robertson argued that the UK was underprepared for modern threats and questioned whether current spending priorities were sufficient to guarantee national security.

The government has rejected suggestions that it is neglecting defence, pointing to plans for increased military spending and describing the defence budget as being on course to reach record levels.

Join the discussion? Create account. orange.png

Already a member? haveyr-say.png


image.png
Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 7 June 2026

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

nauseus Star Member

nauseus

Advanced Member
9 minutes ago, Tourist2 said:


You should read 'Churchill and the Jews'
The fat **** and his father were owned by them.

He dragged Britain into a war under the excuse of dEFEnDinG poLanD and ended up handing Poland to the ******** bolsheviks - much worse than the germans.

Churchill even used normal English people as bait to get the US into the war - continually bombing German civilians - forcing Hitler to reply in kind

4 $USD to 1 £English before Churchill tooks England down -
Leaving us in debt to the US untill the 2000s and giving away hundreds of patents too.

Do some research instead of spouting B&W history channel BS

Churchill was a proper scumbag and a massive part of the prolems England faces to this day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zusUe3sjMbw

Churchill World Govt.png

All nonsense. The outcome of the Nazi invasion of Poland meant that an attempt at the invasion of England was probable. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had already been signed on August 23, 1939, before the UK declared war. The Germans initiated the dropping of bombs on civilian areas (London). The money (debt) was the cost of winning the war.

And you accuse others of not researching?

You are a continuing joke.

JonnyF Star Member

JonnyF

Advanced Member
1 hour ago, Tourist2 said:


Probably rushing a passport so they can call him "mentally ill British man, 28"

I wonder if they've charged the guys who beat the attacker with a hurling stick, with a hate crime yet?

Tourist2 Advanced Member

Tourist2

Member
49 minutes ago, MikeandDow said:

What utter crap !!

There is Right reaserch and then there is the crap you pertained to say its true !! David Irving, the discredited British historian and Nazi apologist, was this week starting a three-year prison sentence in Vienna for denying the Holocaust and the gas chambers of Auschwitz.


Yep, plenty of evidence to prove that Auswitz was not as sold.
The liberation pictures and film you lapped up as naive children were faked.
The camp had a swimming pool and brothel - FOR THE JEWS.
And the louse chamber doors were made of wood.
OK Boomer.

I get it though, many boomers are incapable of getting their heads around the idea that they've been conned.

"It's easier to fool a boomer, than to have him admit that he's been fooled"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbI9ZrGw6oc

MikeandDow Ruby Member

MikeandDow

Advanced Member
9 minutes ago, Tourist2 said:


Yep, plenty of evidence to prove that Auswitz was not as sold.
The liberation pictures and film you lapped up as naive children were faked.
The camp had a swimming pool and brothel - FOR THE JEWS.
And the louse chamber doors were made of wood.
OK Boomer.

I get it though, many boomers are incapable of getting their heads around the idea that they've been conned.

"It's easier to fool a boomer, than to have him admit that he's been fooled"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbI9ZrGw6oc

Next you will be saying Trump is an alien from space to conquer the world !!

Chomper Higgot Star Member

Chomper Higgot

Advanced Member
2 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Why would i fight for a government that considers me a second class citizen on the basis of my race and religion?

No thanks.

I'd suggest you volunteer but you need to be British and under retirement age.

Jonny, one does not fight for the British Government, one fights for King and Country.

Get to it you proud patriot.

Tourist2 Advanced Member

Tourist2

Member
25 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Jonny, one does not fight for the British Government, one fights for King and Country.

Get to it you proud patriot.


Every Major War Begins Under False Pretenses & the Central Banks Are Behind It.
Economist Explains. You Listen and Learn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wi_zQX--wE&t=3525s


JonnyF Star Member

JonnyF

Advanced Member
15 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Jonny, one does not fight for the British Government, one fights for King and Country.

Get to it you proud patriot.

The king doesn't make conscription policy and decide to send troops to war, Higgot.

I would never fight for my country while Starmer is PM.

DaRoadrunner Gold Member

DaRoadrunner

Advanced Member
On 6/9/2026 at 12:57 PM, FlorC said:

None , the system is corrupt beyond repair.

If we don't get this right the muslims will overrun us

ronnie50 Platinum Member

ronnie50

Advanced Member
On 6/8/2026 at 6:39 PM, MikeandDow said:

By mid-1940, with Britain standing alone, the desire to only be on the defensive transformed into total national mobilization.

Except it wasn't standing alone in 1940. In September the year before (1939) Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand declared war on Germany. In 1940 so did Belgium.

temuFarang Senior Member

temuFarang

Member
2 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

Except it wasn't standing alone in 1940. In September the year before (1939) Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand declared war on Germany. In 1940 so did Belgium.

The list of counties brought an impressive range of military capabilities to the table.

MikeandDow Ruby Member

MikeandDow

Advanced Member
1 hour ago, ronnie50 said:

Except it wasn't standing alone in 1940. In September the year before (1939) Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand declared war on Germany. In 1940 so did Belgium.

"Britain stood alone" is a defining phrase from World War II The idea that the British Empire was "standing alone" in 1940 is often used as a shorthand to describe the absence of major continental allies in Europe

ronnie50 Platinum Member

ronnie50

Advanced Member
14 hours ago, MikeandDow said:

"Britain stood alone" is a defining phrase from World War II The idea that the British Empire was "standing alone" in 1940 is often used as a shorthand to describe the absence of major continental allies in Europe

They weren't absent. By Spring of 1940 they had all been invaded by Nazi Germany. But by that time, fighting forces and air defences of Canada, Australia, South Africa, free Poles and free French were already established in Britain to reinforce the country and to begin taking the fight to Germany. It would take another long 1.5 years for the US to join the fight. And even then it took 3.5 more years, and the combined efforts of all, to defeat the advanced and determined forces of Hitler's Nazi regime and its axis allies in Europe. Many aren't aware of this but the first major offensive and land invasion of Nazi Occupied Europe happened nearly a year before D-Day in southern Italy. Led by American and British commanders, US, Canadian and (Polish?) troops landed in southern Italf and began the fight toward Rome.

ronnie50 Platinum Member

ronnie50

Advanced Member
16 hours ago, temuFarang said:

The list of counties brought an impressive range of military capabilities to the table.

At the end of World War II, Canada had one of the world's largest navies (which shrank considerably in the decades that followed)

From AI:

World War II: By the end of World War II in 1945, the RCN experienced a massive, thirtyfold expansion. It boasted a fleet of over 400 warships—mostly anti-submarine vessels like destroyers, corvettes, and frigates—and was the fourth-largest fleet globally, trailing only the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union

nick supreme Gold Member

nick supreme

Advanced Member
On 6/8/2026 at 8:51 PM, MikeandDow said:

This is a subject of ongoing debate, largely because the answer depends on how you define the word "racism"

Sociologists and scholars often separate the concept of interpersonal prejudice from systemic racism

  • Interpersonal Racism and Prejudice: The standard dictionary definition is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. Under this definition, any individual—regardless of skin color or racial background—is capable of holding racial bias or acting with racial prejudice.

  • Systemic or Institutional Racism: Many academics and sociologists argue that racism is defined by power dynamics, defining it as "prejudice plus power". From this sociological perspective, racism relies on historical, cultural, and institutional systems of advantage. Those who argue that Black people cannot be racist assert that Black individuals and communities typically lack the societal, institutional, and economic power to enforce widespread racial oppression against a dominant group.

  • Nations and Majorities: Similarly, countries with primarily Black or Brown populations are not immune to racial conflict. They can and do experience tribalism, xenophobia, colorism, and discrimination against minority groups within their borders, though whether these dynamics reflect the exact same racial hierarchies seen in Western, White-majority nations remains a topic of theoretical debate.

The statement "Black people can’t be racist" Incorrect in my opinion example tribal wars in Africa due to racial hatred,

Let's move past the whitesplaining. It's important for you to recognize and acknowledge your privilege.

Create an account or sign in to comment

Account

Navigation

Search

Search

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.