Defence Secretary urges British public to be ready for war within 1,000 days

Britain must be braced to go to war within 1,000 days due to Russia’s growing military capacity , the Defence Secretary has warned. The UK has three years to improve its defences alongside NATO allies, Wes Streeting says, because adversaries will be ready to attack by 2030. The threat of "state-sponsored terrorism" by hostile countries that could target our infrastructure is ever-increasing, he said. His alert comes following the launch of the Government’s Be Ready campaign , enabling Brits to get through a national emergency as Prime Minister Andy Burnham said unexpected events "are becoming more common". Mr Streeting's alert arrives after one expert warns the UK is "light years" behind our neighbours when it comes to preparing for major event. To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed. Writing in The Telegraph, he warns Britain’s enemies could be in a position to attack before long, especially as Moscow takes its hybrid warfare against Nato up a notch. He wrote: “Our adversaries’ willingness to harm us is not new. What has changed is their capacity. By 2030 their force strength and war economy could put them in a position to attack. That gives us a little over 1,000 days to complete our mission: to be ready with our allies to fight and win.” He added: "To prevent the worst, we have to prepare for it. My defining priority is to make sure that this country is ready to fight and win a war.” His warning comes following the launch of the Be Ready campaign, suggesting the threat of a potential break-down in essential services is a stark reality. The initiative was not triggered by any "particular piece of intelligence", but rather about improving "national resilience" more generally, he stressed. Brits were told to stock up on enough emergency supplies to survive for three days in the event of a crisis in a bid to strengthen national resilience. Mr Streeting previously said: "Terms like ' hybrid warfare ' and 'grey zone threats' do not accurately capture or convey to the general public what I prefer to describe as 'state-sponsored terrorism'. "It's really important that we ask households and businesses, are they prepared? Are they ready? Do they know how they would respond in the event of everyday challenges that might manifest themselves?" People have been advised to have a supply of bottled water, money and food in the event of a crisis. Britain is not the only country that tasks its citizens with preparing for a crisis. Streeting said: “In the face of those threats, which are not hypothetical but real, and not somewhere else but increasingly here, we have to step up and take seriously our national resilience as well as our national defence." The PM told the BBC : “It’s not about panicking. It’s about just taking sensible measures to have enough in the house to tide you over should there be a difficult situation."