Red alert as Russia stocks up on secret weapons after testing on Ukraine
BRUTAL Russia’s seizure of Crimea, invasion of Ukraine and support of President Assad’s regime in Syria have already put the West on red alert over Vladimir Putin’s military ambitions.
Now a leaked report has warned how Russian military equipment and tactics give them a “significant capability edge” over British forces on the battlefield.
The top secret file by the Army’s warfare branch, marked “official-sensitive” but revealed by The Times, details a host of weapons it believes are already being tested in Russia’s battles in Ukraine and Syria.
They include advanced artillery, such as bombs with blasts similar to nuclear explosions, and vehicle-mounted rocket launchers that can reach targets 56 miles away.
So devastating are these, says the report, that they could make a planned new £3.5billion fleet of 600 lightly armoured British combat vehicles “disproportionately vulnerable” even before they have entered service.
Other state-of-the-art tech includes a listening device that can detect snipers.
The report adds Russia’s ability to electronically hijack enemy drones is so sophisticated that the UK and its Nato allies were “scrambling to catch up”.
It also says Moscow’s investment in such technology was “a real game changer”.
Hackers can even target enemy soldiers by stealing sensitive information from personal phones or tablets and using it against them.
RELATED STORIES
The study, produced in March under the direction of Army head General Sir Nick Carter, is designed to tell our soldiers what they must learn to counter the threat.
It says: “We must find ways to ‘fight smarter’ at the tactical level, acknowledging that some adversaries may be armed with weapons that are superior to our own.”
We look at the frightening array of battlefield weapons and tactics the UK and its Nato allies could be up against.
