Britain | Into the greyzone

Britain’s armed forces get ready for a revolution

The emphasis is on threats short of open warfare and the technological prowess to combat them

Hunting for budget cuts
|RAF WYTON

THE CAVERNOUS space inside RAF Wyton, an airbase near Cambridge, resembles a newsroom. But the stories traded here are heavily classified. The Defence Intelligence Fusion Centre is the world’s only hub where personnel from across the Five Eyes alliance (comprising America, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand) keep a watch on the world’s hotspots. The logo of GCHQ, Britain’s signals-intelligence agency, hangs above one desk. That of America’s Defence Intelligence Agency above another. In a crisis, 1,200 people could fit around the open-plan desks; during a pandemic, things are roomier.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Into the greyzone”

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