Britain puts a new offensive cyber force at the heart of its defence

THE HEAD of America’s Cyber Command, Paul Nakasone, is a four-star general whose chest is plastered in medals. The commander of Britain’s National Cyber Force (NCF) is a bespectacled, middle-aged man in a beige blazer—a 20-year veteran of GCHQ, Britain’s signals-intelligence service, whose name the government has asked to keep secret. Unassuming as he may be, his agency, responsible for offensive cyber operations, now stands at the centre of a sweeping overhaul of British defence capabilities.

On November 19th Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, announced the biggest programme of investment in defence since the Thatcher era. The cash, an extra £6.5bn ($8.7bn) during this Parliament over previous manifesto plans, reverses a decade of military cuts—“the era of retreat”, as Mr Johnson put it—and cements Britain’s position as the second-largest military spender in NATO, behind America, and the largest in Europe, with a budget of £46.5bn this year. It includes a tilt to the seas and skies, with more spending on ships, a commitment to send an aircraft-carrier to Asia next year and a Space Command that will watch for threats to satellites.