Interview
Covid-19: Britain's chief of the defence staff talks about the military challenges
- General Sir Nick Carter identifies the UK's military mobilization against coronavirus as the "single greatest logistical challenge" of his career, surpassing his experience in the Gulf Wars, due to the "leaned out" nature of government efficiency and the massive, complicated expansion required for NHS supply chains.
- Regarding intelligence on the virus's origin, Carter rejects the notion of a "witch hunt," stating he has personally seen no evidence of a deliberate act or mistake by any government, and argues the focus should be on global prevention through forums like the UN or G20.
- The 77 Brigade, a military unit originally created for battlefield information operations, is being utilized in support of the Cabinet Office to identify and flag misinformation rather than to create propaganda or lead disinformation campaigns domestically.
- Carter distinguishes between "disinformation" (deliberate falsehoods) and "misinformation" (unintentional errors), noting that the 77 Brigade assists by identifying false narratives for political or media actors to address, rather than the military engaging in home-front propaganda.
- The UK military does not plan to use the 77 Brigade to directly manage domestic disinformation topics like 5G allegations, viewing such roles as inappropriate for the military to undertake directly within the UK.
- Despite US absence from the EU's $8 billion global vaccine funding initiative, Carter asserts the US remains central to NATO's military strategy and recent high-level meetings, with no evidence of its diminishing role in the alliance.
- Carter expresses confidence in the continued unity between the UK, France, and Germany regarding the support of vulnerable countries in the developing world, predicting a united approach to vaccine distribution to ensure allies are remembered positively during crises.
- General Carter maintains that despite political volatility in the US administration, he has "regularly" spoken with US Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who shares the view that the pandemic is a global problem requiring a coordinated Western military and political response.
- Geopolitical tension has not diminished during the pandemic; NATO intercepts of Russian aircraft occur every one to two weeks, and joint military exercises continue in Estonia and off the coast of Norway at "normal" activity levels.
- Authoritarian state actors and Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are actively exploiting the pandemic context to target pharmaceutical companies, intellectual property, and national governments to gain competitive advantages over Western liberal democracies.
- Carter suggests the pandemic exacerbates opportunities for disinformation because it forces populations into digital environments, allowing malicious actors to play on existing societal divides, though he lacks specific evidence to confirm a statistically higher volume of activity.
- Carter remains skeptical that a UN-brokered global ceasefire would be effective against non-state actors like Daesh (ISIS), noting that while these groups may be hampered by the virus, their ambition to cause disruption is not expected to diminish.