At its core, the UK’s new Strategic Defence Review (SDR) recognizes that warfare is being redefined by rapid technological advances and evolving conflict dynamics.
Among the most pressing of these are complex cyber threats, which are increasingly shaping the UK’s national security landscape. In December 2024, the Head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned that cyber risks facing the country are widely underestimated. In January, a National Audit Office report described the cyber threat that the UK government is facing as severe and rapidly evolving. This month, Defence Secretary John Healey revealed that UK military networks have faced more than 90,000 ‘sub-threshold’ cyberattacks in the past two years.
In this context, one of the SDR’s most consequential initiatives is the establishment of a new Cyber and Electromagnetic (CyberEM) Command, designed to respond to some of these threats by unifying the UK’s cyber, electromagnetic, and information operations under a single structure.
Complementing this, the SDR commits £1 billion to develop a ‘Digital Targeting Web’ to link UK armed forces’ weapon systems – enabling faster, data-driven battlefield decisions across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace.
Both initiatives reflect a shared strategic insight: digital superiority – including cyber resilience and electromagnetic dominance – will be critical both in high-intensity warfare and in ongoing grey zone activities, where adversarial activities persist below the threshold of conventional force.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s successful defence against Russia’s full-scale invasion has demonstrated the vital importance of digital innovation, agile decision-making and improvisation in modern warfare.
Yet for the UK to gain a genuine strategic advantage, the SDR’s new initiatives must not only pursue technological integration but also deliver it effectively.
Cyber command
Historically, UK defence managed cyber and EM activities across distinct units such as the British Army’s Cyber and Electromagnetic Effects Group, the Air and Space Warfare Centre, the Royal Navy’s Information Warfare Group, and Space Command.
But in today’s battlespace – where hacking, jamming, and influence operations often converge – fragmented command structures are no longer fit for purpose. The creation of CyberEM Command represents a paradigm shift toward a unified command that integrates cyber operations, electromagnetic spectrum warfare, and information capabilities.
This integration promises enhanced situational awareness, operational coherence, and more efficient use of resources to enable faster and more coordinated responses to emerging digital threats.
Importantly, the SDR distinguishes the roles of the new CyberEM Command from the existing National Cyber Force (NCF). CyberEM Command is given responsibility for coherence across defence and acts as the primary military point of contact for CyberEM-related matters. It does not, however, execute offensive cyber operations.
Those responsibilities lie with the NCF, a joint Ministry of Defence–GCHQ unit established in 2020 tasked with delivering offensive cyber capabilities aligned with national objectives.
In other words, while CyberEM Command sets priorities and coordinates across defence, the NCF executes the tactical missions. This clear division of labour should ensure strategic clarity, avoid duplication, and align the UK’s digital assets around a common purpose.
Supporting NATO
Ukraine has done important work connecting its cyber and electromagnetic activity in the battlefield, and NATO countries like the US are learning crucial lessons from their example. But by creating a unified command in CyberEM, the UK can claim to be a genuine pioneer.
Such innovation promises to reinforce the UK’s role as a digital leader within NATO, serving as a single authoritative UK entity for cyber and EM operations and facilitating more effective collaboration with NATO allies, many of whom are at different stages of integrating their digital capabilities.
As NATO continues to strengthen its operational posture in cyberspace – an established domain – and develops its approach to the electromagnetic spectrum, the UK’s integrated command model offers a compelling template for alliance partners.
In that respect, CyberEM Command not only boosts national readiness but could position the UK to shape NATO’s evolving posture on digital defence and deterrence.
The Digital Targeting Web
Ukraine’s success has provided a case study of modern conflict, particularly in its use of digital targeting and agile command structures.
The UK’s Digital Targeting Web is an attempt to apply these lessons by facilitating real-time data-sharing and precision targeting across the armed forces. It aims to enhance deterrence and operational effectiveness in contested environments, while signalling the UK’s broader ambition to modernize its armed forces with integrated digital capabilities that cut across traditional domains of warfare.
However, such tools are not solely for wartime operations. The threat environment increasingly includes persistent grey zone activities – cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, cyber espionage, and information warfare that occur continuously and below the threshold of war.