The Strategic Defence Review announcement this week that the MoD and the NHS must prepare for nuclear attack and that the British Army must be able to fight and survive in a radiation contaminated environment has caused some upset and alarm.  President Putin has just told Donald Trump he will exact severe revenge on Ukraine for destroying his nuclear bombers: there are those who fear that he might follow through on previous nuclear threats.

Certainly, when the ‘N’ word is mentioned, amongst the uninitiated or those with overactive imaginations, panic ensues. We should not panic, but the Kremlin’s regular nuclear threats towards London and Kyiv – and Russia’s massive use of chemical weapons in Ukraine – must be taken seriously: very seriously.

But when I say there is no call for panic, I am confident. I have dealt with real world chemical attacks and I am well versed in the realities of dealing with nuclear strikes.  All threats can be mitigated. It is the threat we miss, or think too difficult to counter, that is likely to cause us strategic upset.