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A former commodore has provided a damning assessment of Britain's capabilities.
17:29, Sat, Feb 21, 2026 Updated: 17:29, Sat, Feb 21, 2026
An expert has warned of an area where Russia is more advanced than the Royal Navy (Image: Getty)
A former Royal Navy chief has warned that the UK lags behind Russia in one crucial respect that could see Russia strike the UK or US. Retired Commodore John Aitken, underwater system services general manager at tech firm Thales, and a former deputy director of submarines in Britain's navy, appeared in front of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee on February 10, and spoke about submarine warfare in polar seas.
The UK has "very limited capability under the ice", he said, adding that the country should reinvest in it. Russia would likely send its Ship, Submersible, Ballistic, Nuclear (SSBN) force to the High North - Arctic regions and adjacent North Atlantic areas, including the Barents Sea, Greenland and Norway - under the ice as it makes them difficult to track and follow.
Aitken added: "We also know that they have the ability to burst through the ice and then fire missiles into Europe or North America, which reduces reaction time. While people think that it is incredibly quiet in the polar seas, it is not; it is really noisy because of all the ice movement, and it is a very difficult environment to operate in."
Russia has formidable submarines (Image: Getty)
Another edge the Russians have is that they are likely to be able to "ice pick" - sit with a fin pressed against the bottom of the ice, which makes it difficult to distinguish submarines from ice keels, Commodore Atiken said.
The expert told MPs: "They have a tremendous array of capabilities, including diesel-electric submarines, which offer them choice in how they behave.
"I think that their activities across the submarine flotilla would encompass all of warfare, from the shaping operations at the outset—we are talking about the GUGI platforms, which might be looking after their critical national infrastructure, but they can also strike against ours."
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The ex-commodore believes the UK has seven days of gas reserves, meaning a strike from the Kremlin on Britain's national infrastructure could "have a significant effect".
He added: "If you can affect online systems through attacking cables and transactions, that can have a significant effect and wear down people’s willingness to fight or resilience within a country. They have options.
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"Then if you talk about the potential, which is not deniable, for strike capability, the Kalibr missiles are going to be fired from submarines.
"They have deep strike and the ability to conduct grey zone operations—or whatever the current phrase is for it—and to then strike against land, surface and submarine targets. They are a very capable navy."
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