Iran is ramping up attempts to hit harder targets such as military sites in Britain while Russia is escalating its hybrid warfare as it lashes out against Ukraine’s allies, the UK’s domestic spy chief said on Tuesday.
In his annual speech on wide-ranging threats to Britain, MI5’s Director General Ken McCallum also said the greatest concern about the misuse of AI was terrorists being able to develop bioweapons or even create new novel pathogens.
McCallum said state threats had quadrupled over the last decade meaning his organization now devoted more resources to the issue than during the Cold War.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Tehran was “highly likely” behind a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, which had been used by U.S. bombers to carry out strikes
on Iran. It prompted a massive security alert and led to U.S. President Donald Trump withdrawing planes from the air base.
-
![]()
‘I’ve never heard of the person’: Trump slams Norway for not picking him as Nobel Peace Prize winner -
![]()
Russell Brand trial: Jury selection begins for rape, sexual assault case -
![]()
Saudi energy minister vows ‘serious’ response to deadly Houthi attack -
![]()
Montrealers stand in solidarity with ‘Cockroach’ movement in India
McCallum said he could not speak about the Fairford incident because of an ongoing investigation, but he said there had been a major shift this year in “Iranian ambitions to come at harder targets, like military sites.”
Get breaking National news
“The RAF Fairfield incident … is not unique. There have been other examples, not just in the UK but around the world,” he said.
On Russia, which likewise denies involvement in hostile acts in Britain, the UK spy chief said it remained the “aggressor number one.”
He echoed comments from other European spy agencies that Russia was using tactics just short of conventional conflict, citing the attempted drone attack on a cargo plane at a German airport and a cyber attack on Polish energy infrastructure.
“It’s no accident that Russian aggressors are trying to unsettle other European homelands at a time when their military progress in Ukraine is minimal and horrifically costly,” he said.
lol, thy did keep the base safe, you f *ucking moron.
Time to bring James Bond out of retirement
LOL. These morons can’t even keep a military base inside their country safe from a country in the Middle East. Why not just admit defeat now like you did in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam and pretty much every war you losers have ever started?