Director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute @RUSI_org; recovering former civil servant; all views expressed here are my own.
Joined February 2024
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Matthew Savill retweeted
Great seeing Maj Gen Fayes from @DefenceHQ Defence Cyber and Electromagnetic
Force talked about the UK conducting ‘hunt force’ missions. This was a core point that we heard from NATO member states and Allies in our research on cyber deterrence. @RUSI_org rusi.org/explore-our-researc…
UK sends cyber ‘hunt forces’ abroad to stop hostile hackers thetimes.com/uk/defence/arti…
Matthew Savill retweeted
This is excellent.
The 'Organisation' component of capability is often undervalued and under-developed, but it can be a real catalyst in driving capability change.
The Royal Navy has stood up its first ever autonomous squadron that will operate uncrewed boats on front-line operations – as investment into the hybrid navy continues.
The 1st Autonomous Squadron is currently operating Kraken K3 Scout and Rattler USVs.
royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2026/n…
Matthew Savill retweeted
EXCL: The UK is lagging behind other European countries in public understanding of the threat posed by Russia, the head of the British military has warned in an interview with @FT.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, said that Britain needed to “catch up with our European allies”, including those geographically closer to Russia who felt the proximity of its aggression and the war in Ukraine more acutely.
He promised further action to counter Moscow’s submarines in the North Atlantic, ahead of a new ‘northern navies’ maritime pact between the UK and nine Northern European allies (Netherlands, Nordics, Baltics and Iceland), expected to be signed on Tuesday.
ft.com/content/9d49deb8-33f6…
Matthew Savill retweeted
🚨 NEW RECORD - 210 days
A whisker shy of SEVEN MONTHS under the sea
HMS Vengence returns today, Remembrance Sunday.
She set sail on April 12.
Matthew Savill retweeted
With the midterms over, attention now turns to whether the US will restart major strikes on Iran, and if so, for how long. The forces in theater could open a campaign on Feb's scale, but the munition stocks likely couldn't sustain it, and US forces would face greater risk. A 🧵.
Matthew Savill retweeted
If you're a War on the Rocks or RUSI member, check out this upcoming webinar on Nov. 12! warontherocks.com/the-atlant…
Matthew Savill retweeted
If anyone wants to read something different to the budget … I wrote about my thyroid, my baby and me.
As I said, I was worried this was an over share but my hope is it helps other women who have an auto immune condition. It’s not easy.
Some of the reader’s comments fear this article is about me putting women off having babies. It’s not. I love babies, I hope more women have more babies and it hasn’t put me off pregnancy either. However I wanted to contribute to an honest conversation about the mental world that pregnancy is and what it does to the body.
Also a big shout out to @BBCr4today
programme for keeping me sane come morning, after some very scary nights.
Anyway, obviously the real star of this piece is my son.
telegraph.co.uk/health-fitne…
Matthew Savill retweeted
‘The time to act on this is now. We must act quickly and we must be bold.’
Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Harv Smyth (@ChiefofAirStaff) delivered the 2026 Lord Trenchard Memorial Lecture at RUSI, calling for the RAF to harness new technologies to rapidly develop its combat capabilities.
RUSI members can watch the full recording on our website: bit.ly/4yOCZ6L
Matthew Savill retweeted
Earlier this week, RUSI hosted The Iran Crisis Stocktake: Who Can Sustain the Pressure?
The US–Iran ceasefire has collapsed, there is no clear path back to the MoU signed this summer, and both sides claim control of the Strait of Hormuz—all amid speculation about a third round of hostilities.
I was joined by an excellent panel of experts: Ali Ansari (@aa51_ansari), Mohammed Al-Basha (@BashaReport and Jonathan Hackett (@jonathanhackett).
Watch the full event on the RUSI website:
rusi.org/members-event-recor…
As tensions around the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf continue to escalate, RUSI’s briefing on the Iran Crisis Stocktake offers essential context on where this conflict stands and where it’s heading.
RUSI members can access the full recording here: bit.ly/3VXlG5E
Matthew Savill retweeted
🌍In the years after the Cold War, it was widely assumed that great powers had moved beyond geopolitics.
Professor Scott Smitson examines why that assumption proved premature in the latest episode of #TalkingStrategy: bit.ly/3Ucdu0C
Matthew Savill retweeted
Russian Military Satellite Stalks Ukraine-Linked Spy Satellite in Orbit, Closing In to Just 5 Km
united24media.com/war-in-ukr…
Matthew Savill retweeted
👀 Interesting new Instagram post by "C", Blaise Metreweli, asking for tech professionals to join SIS/MI6
🔗 instagram.com/reel/Dejx7Azg3…
Matthew Savill retweeted
RUSI was pleased to partner with @CSIS and @UKinUSA yesterday for a conversation with UK Defence Secretary @wesstreeting (@DefenceHQ) on the future of US-UK defence cooperation.
As Europe rearms and transatlantic burden-sharing evolves, the discussion examined how London and Washington can keep deterrence credible.
You can watch the full recording here: bit.ly/4zuUmKk
Matthew Savill retweeted
Even worse, in practice it is not operating at speeds remotely near the new velocity restriction that suddenly came into effect last night.
“Starlink terminals used by Ukrainian drone units began experiencing signal failures at speeds above 160kph, disrupting several missions early on Wednesday morning, according to military personnel and senior Ukrainian officials.
‘Logistics at the frontline and middle strikes are badly limited,’ one senior Ukrainian official familiar with the situation on the front told the FT. Ukraine’s middle strikes target Russian military supply lines and logistics. The limitations came with ‘no warning, just in the middle of the night’, the official said.”
ft.com/content/37085602-726a…
Matthew Savill retweeted
@jpanikoff and @MTSavill joined @AKendallTaylor and @jteurope on Brussel Sprouts this past week to discuss if and how the Iran war would spread to the European territory and how prepared NATO is for a response.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts: cnas.org/publications/podcas…
Matthew Savill retweeted
Being a great cultural institution the Imperial War Museum gets its share of brickbats - here's what I learned in eight years on the board markurban.substack.com/p/sec…
Matthew Savill retweeted
"Russia cannot simply build its way out of the problem through numerical expansion." New RUSI research by Dr Sidharth Kaushal finds Russia's nuclear modernisation will favour response speed and precision over mobility and arsenal size. It will see continued investment in silo-based systems, theatre-level strike capabilities, and counterspace tools, while mobile launchers and submarines see less growth, treated more as a retaliatory hedge than the centrepiece of deterrence.
rusi.org/explore-our-researc…
Matthew Savill retweeted
I had the honor of co-moderating a fascinating discussion about trans-Atlantic perspectives on nuclear deterrence, along with our Atlantic Brief partner @RUSI_org! All star panel! @nktpnd @paulvanhooft @MTSavill & Tom McKane
warontherocks.com/the-atlant…
Matthew Savill retweeted
Britain’s opposition Conservative Party has proposed building a new missile and drone defence system to protect the UK.
On 6 October the party posted on X : ‘Conservatives will invest up to £10 billion in Britannia Shield, a British ‘Iron Dome’-style system to protect the UK, our territories and bases overseas.’ It said the country had done too little against the ‘threat from missiles and drones’.
In July General Sir Richard Barrons, a Senior Consulting Fellow 9 (@CH_IntSecurity) one of the leaders of the UK’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review, gave evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee about the likely cost of such a defence system.
The cost of a UK ‘Iron Dome’ would be 'entry level, probably £80 billion over 10 years’ he said, adding that the UK’s Defence Investment Plan falls far short, allocating only about £1 billion for integrated air and missile defence.
Matthew Savill retweeted
TL:DR ✨NEW PAPER✨ "Beyond 'Cyber' in Deterrence: A Multilevel Framework".
A framework for a whole-of-government approach to cyber deterrence, with 50+ tools to slow down, degrade, disrupt and deny malicious cyber activity. 🧵
W my colleague Gareth Mott.
Europe is fighting a hybrid war with a one-dimensional toolkit. Drones, sabotage and disinformation continue while responses stay largely cyber-only. Our new report by Dr Louise Marie Hurel and Dr Gareth Mott argues cyberattacks demand a broader statecraft response. It proposes a 52-tool framework spanning diplomatic, economic, military, intelligence and development instruments, sequenced to adversary behaviour rather than applied uniformly.
rusi.org/explore-our-researc…