MI5 chief warns of Iranian threats to military sites and escalating Russian hybrid warfare

London, United Kingdom. Iran is stepping up efforts to target military facilities and other harder targets in Britain, while Russia is intensifying hybrid warfare against countries supporting Ukraine, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said on Tuesday.

Iranian targeting and the Fairford investigation

Speaking in his annual address on the range of threats facing Britain, McCallum said Iran’s ambitions had shifted significantly this year towards attacking more difficult targets, including military sites.

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His remarks followed a statement on Monday by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who said Tehran was very likely responsible for a suspected plot targeting RAF Fairford. US bombers had operated from the base to strike Iran. The suspected plot triggered a major security alert, and US President Trump subsequently withdrew aircraft from the base.

McCallum declined to discuss the Fairford case because the investigation remained ongoing. However, he said: “The RAF Fairfield incident … is not unique. There have been other examples, not just in the UK but around the world,”

Russian activity across Europe

McCallum described Russia as the leading aggressor. Russia, too, denies responsibility for hostile activity in Britain.

Echoing assessments by other European intelligence agencies, he said Moscow was employing methods that fell just below the threshold of conventional warfare. He pointed to an attempted attack using a drone against a cargo aircraft at an airport in Germany, alongside a cyberattack targeting energy infrastructure in Poland.

McCallum said Russian efforts to destabilise other European countries were deliberately taking place while Moscow’s military gains in Ukraine remained limited and came at a horrific cost.

State threats and artificial intelligence

Threats from states had risen fourfold over the past decade, McCallum said, leaving MI5 allocating more resources to that area than it had during the Cold War.

He also identified terrorists’ potential use of artificial intelligence to develop biological weapons, or even produce entirely new pathogens, as his greatest concern about misuse of the technology.