A military intelligence expert has warned that real-life wargames like those portrayed in a new Nicola Sturgeon reality TV show reveal the UK would “meltdown” in a war with Russia. Colonel Philip Ingram MBE claimed that confidential stress testing of UK capabilities has shown Britain’s underfunded military could be easily overwhelmed, and Scotland is particularly vulnerable to attacks on North Sea pipelines and subsea cables.
Expert warns of 'complete and utter chaos'
Speaking to the Sunday Mail, former military intelligence officer Ingram said: “Significant damage to our subsea cable network would mean people’s access to the internet would be vastly restricted.
“Everything would slow down, including access to banks, affecting individuals and businesses.
“Supermarkets working ’just in time’, our manufacturers who work a ‘just in time’ supply, rely on the internet to get their orders through to suppliers. Manufacturers and trucking companies rely on connectivity to get things to the right place at the right time.
“In the City of London, our ability to carry out financial transactions would slow down, and the ability of the government to react to it, and therefore it would cost us billions of pounds.
“It would cause complete and utter chaos across the country.
“Our shops would very quickly run out of food. Our farms would have difficulty getting stuff into warehouses. Our emergency services would have difficulty coordinating their activities. Our financial institutions would start to collapse.
“The untold damage to our economy would be very difficult to calculate. The country would go into meltdown.”
Wargame highlights vulnerabilities
He added that although wargaming has always been integral in the Armed Forces, it has been less common in government departments since the Cold War ended – but has ramped up in recent years.
Ingram said: “The Wargame is fantastic at highlighting our real vulnerabilities and assumptions made in government.
“For example, if ballistic missiles are fired at the UK, they think because they have to overfly other countries, they will get shot down.
“But they won’t necessarily. We’ve seen the paucity of anti-ballistic missiles that exist in warzones like the Middle East. The Americans are running out of them. The Ukrainians are running out of them.
“And unless you’ve got a contra-ballistic missile system in exactly the right area at the right time, then you aren’t going to shoot them down. And the only time you’re going to know whether they’ve got a nuclear warhead on them or not is when they go bang.”
He added: “Vladimir Putin sees Europe and the UK in particular as weak. Getting our defence capability up to speed by 2030, as the UK Government proposes, is four years too late.”
Scotland's undersea infrastructure at risk
Verineia Codrean, head of strategy at underwater defence firm Euroatlas, warned the gravest current threat to UK defences was underwater cables – of which around 4000 miles run through the Scottish seabed, about 40 per cent of the UK total.
She said: “That means Scotland could be front and centre of any conflict with that undersea infrastructure sabotaged.
“In the show, we see a Russian ship spotted off the coast of Scotland. The UK Government revealed Moscow’s Yantar intelligence ship, associated with seabed operations and previously reported to carry wire-cutting equipment, twice entered UK waters in 2025.
“Last year, it was involved in a stand off, off the north coast of Scotland, directing laser beams at British RAF maritime patrol pilots.”
The UK’s subsea cables are worth trillions to the economy and carry 99 per cent of the country’s internet traffic, including texts, videos and phone calls. The UK also relies on a network of underwater gas pipelines, primarily in the North Sea, which provide essential energy from the UK and Norwegian Continental Shelves. About 80 per cent of the UK’s gas imports come from Norway.
John Swinney warned last year he was “very concerned the UK does not have sufficient capability to deal with the Russian threat in the North Atlantic” after revelations of Russians subs loitering off the Scottish coast suspected of trying to map the UK’s cable network.
Hybrid war and ammunition concerns
Euroatlas, which produces the Greyshark undersea drone used by European militaries, has carried out its own wargames with leading political figures – particularly on protecting deepsea infrastructure.
Codrean added: “The uncomfortable reality is that the resources currently available to monitor the enormous underwater domain are limited.”
European leaders warned earlier this month of an “intensified threat” from Vladimir Putin’s Russia of “hybrid war” against NATO countries over the alliance’s support of Ukraine. Hybrid attacks could include assassinations, sabotage, misinformation campaigns and cyberattacks.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned Britain last week that direct military help to Ukraine would be considered “participation in a war with all the ensuing consequences”.
In the event of a full-blown conflict, experts warned military stockpiles and explosives could run low perilously quickly. Russia can produce 50,000 tons of TNT a year, while just 6000 tons is produced on the European mainland annually at a single factory in Poland.
Joakim Sjöblom, Co-Founder and CEO of Sweden Ballistics, which is building a 24-hour TNT factory in Sweden, said: “In the show, a military officer warns: ‘We’ve got about two weeks fight.’ He could easily be discussing our ammunition stockpile.
“Britain has committed to building at least six new munitions and explosives factories but as of today, the government hasn’t even selected the sites. A conflict won’t wait for them to open.”
