Senior British commander warns of ‘third nuclear age’

LONDON (AP) — The head of Britain’s armed forces has warned that the world is on the brink of a “third nuclear age,” defined by multiple simultaneous challenges and weakened safeguards that kept previous threats in check.

Admiral Tony Radakin, chief of the defense staff, said Britain must recognize the severity of the threats it faces, even if there is only a remote chance that Russia will launch a direct nuclear attack on Britain or its NATO allies launch.

While the Cold War kept two superpowers at bay through nuclear deterrence and the past three decades have been marked by international efforts to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, the current era is “overall more complex,” Radakin said Wednesday in a speech for the Royal United Services Institute.

“We are on the brink of a third nuclear age…” he said. “It is defined by multiple and simultaneous dilemmas, the proliferation of nuclear and disruptive technologies and the near-total absence of the security architectures that preceded them.”

Challenges facing the West include Russia’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, China’s push to build up its nuclear stockpiles, Iran’s inability to cooperate with international efforts to limit its nuclear program , and North Korea’s “erratic behavior,” Radakin said. All this comes against the backdrop of increasing cyber attacks, sabotage and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing Western countries.

He described the deployment of North Korean soldiers alongside Russian troops on the Ukrainian border as the “most extraordinary development” of the year, and warned that further deployments were possible.

The annual lecture by the Chief of the British Defense Staff is a tradition at RUSI, one of the country’s leading think tanks on military and strategic issues.

Radakin used the lecture to argue for continued reforms in the British military so that Britain is prepared to respond to the changing international landscape. That includes maintaining Britain’s nuclear deterrent, which is “the one part of our inventory that Russia is most aware of and that has more impact on Putin than anything else,” he said.

Britain has at least one nuclear-armed submarine at sea at all times so it can respond in the event of a nuclear attack.

The UK government is currently conducting a strategic defense review to determine how its armed forces should be manned and equipped to meet the new challenges. The results will be published in the first half of next year.