UK Eyes Cybercommand

UK armed forces hope to set up a cybercommand to protect the country from online strikes and to launch its own attacks, says chief of defence staff General Sir David Richards.

Richards felt that the internet would play a crucial role alongside troops on the battlefield and that it could become the dominant form in future warfare, according to The Press Association.

"We must learn to defend, delay, attack and manoeuvre in cyberspace, just as we might on the land, sea or air and all together at the same time," he said.

"At the moment we don't have a cybercommand and I'm very keen we have one," he added.

The chief of the UK's armed forces had recently visited the US cybercommand at the Pentagon and believes that a similar facility in the UK would be an asset to its defence capabilities.