The British Government announced on Tuesday that in 2027 it will carry out the largest national defense exercise in decades, a sign that London assumes that the United Kingdom’s territory is already a direct target of Russian hybrid warfare. The drill, dubbed Operation ALBISTON SHADOW, will involve ministers and hundreds of officials from across the administration for several days to rehearse the state’s response to attacks operating below the conventional threshold: cyber-offensives, sabotage of critical infrastructure, and foreign influence operations.
The precise scenario will remain classified, but the Government has confirmed that the exercise will complement CMX27, NATO’s crisis management drill designed to assess the political and military coordination of allies in the face of serious threats. Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, formalized the announcement as part of the Homeland Defense Program aimed at strengthening national resilience.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shattered the certainty that the island remained outside the scope of direct threats. Since then, London has documented an escalation of hybrid actions attributed to Moscow: industrial sabotage, cyberattacks against infrastructure, and disinformation campaigns aimed at eroding Western support for Kyiv. NATO has warned that Russia could be in a position to attack Europe before 2030.
British Army soldiers from Badger Squadron, The Royal Tank Regiment part of the 12th Armoured Brigade Combat Team ride Challenger 2 tanks during Exercise Immediate Response as one component of NATO’s Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024, in Drawsko Pomorskie training area, Poland May 15, 2024.
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The announcement also incorporates a substantial update to the National Risk Register, the official document that catalogs threats to the country. For the first time, the register includes attempts to interfere in the democratic process: electoral interference, disinformation campaigns, and foreign influence operations.
In total, seven new categories have been added, including cyberattacks against data infrastructure, water systems, and police networks, as well as a specific risk of “digital resilience failure,” incorporated following the CrowdStrike IT collapse in July 2024, when a software update glitch paralyzed more than eight million Windows computers worldwide.
In parallel, the Government will update the War Books, the classified crisis plans that coordinate the departmental response to threats to the national territory. These documents had not been reviewed since 2004. The decision reflects the magnitude of the perceived change: the plans drawn up before the war in Ukraine and before cyberspace became a domain of permanent confrontation have become obsolete.
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The package also includes the launch of a national citizen resilience campaign scheduled for later this year, which will encourage households to prepare for emergencies ranging from extreme weather events to cyberattacks, aligning the United Kingdom with the common practice in Nordic and Baltic countries.
Operation ALBISTON SHADOW represents the explicit recognition that the defense of British territory requires involving the entire society. The Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Richard Knighton, warned last December that the security situation was “more dangerous than I have known in my career” and called for a whole-of-nation approach so that the country can continue to function in a crisis. The 2027 drill will be the first real test of whether that ambition can be translated into effective preparation.
