Never mind tanks and drones... now MoD’s got a bankers battalion
Secretive team ready to wage ‘economic war’ on jihadis and rogue states
AN ARMY of City executives is being commandeered to wage economic warfare against China and Russia.
The battalion of bankers will join a secretive taskforce focusing on protecting British financial infrastructures from foreign attack.
They will also target international revenue streams for terror groups, Russian billionaires with links to president Vladimir Putin and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is believed to fund Middle Eastern terror groups.
The taskforce, mainly made up of reservists with City experience, is already working with Special Forces, intelligence agencies and the Army’s 77th Brigade, which specialises in online operations.
The unit is expanding after being used to shut down Islamic State’s financial support networks – a crucial part of the campaign to remove jihadis from Iraq and Syria. A defence source told The Financial Times: ‘We are not trying to throw middle-aged bankers out of the back of an aircraft on military operations – it is about using their professional skills.’
The unit’s present activities are classified but are understood to involve targeting Kremlin-linked militias such as the Wagner group which is seeking to control mineral resources in Africa and threatening pro-Western governments.
Financial technology is also an area of growing importance with crypto-currencies used to support terrorist activities and militant groups such as the Taliban.
Tom Keatinge, of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said the UK avoided pressuring these areas ‘when we’re trying to negotiate with the Taliban but, if you need to, you can come down on them like a hammer and put them out of business.’
When IS jihadis captured huge swathes of Iraq and Syria, including oil reserves, in 2014 it was the richest terrorist organisation in the world. But gradually the financial infrastructure which protected its ‘caliphate’ was undermined by a sophisticated intelligence-gathering operation by the UK and the US.
Eventually key revenue streams were identified and shut down. IS money ran out and it was prevented from procuring products such as chemical additives needed to turn crude oil into fuel for vehicles. IS fundraising via the Iraqi central bank was also targeted, but such operations required a high degree of financial expertise not readily available in mainstream military units.
Executives possessing such skills will be spared the rigours of military training endured by frontline soldiers. They will also spend less time on the parade square than other recruits. The Ministry of Defence is also looking at remodelling its rank and pay structures so individuals with unique skillsets in areas such as financial technology can be appropriately rewarded and retained. These initiatives provide further indication of the significance of the digital battlefield in modern warfare.
This was a major theme in the UK’s integrated review of defence and security capabilities which included reductions in conventional forces but increases in investment in new technologies.
The MoD said last night: ‘We retain some of the best experts from the private sector through the specialist reserves and we work closely with partners to exchange expertise and knowledge.’
‘You can come down like a hammer’
EIGHT thousand poorly paid troops have been denied a salary rise after an accounting trick by defence officials.
Their basic wages were recalculated so it appeared they earned above the £24,000 threshold for an increase – which is in force as part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s public sector pay pause.
Incorporating an allowance into their basic salary denied 8,200 troops a much-needed £250 a year rise.
The move, exposed by the Daily Mail, triggered widespread condempays nation last night with ministers urged to do a U-turn.
Those affected by the sleight of hand included soldiers who rescued refugees and British nationals following the taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Since the 1970s, personnel have received an allowance – known as X-Factor – on top of their basic pay to recognise the threat to their lives, time spent apart from their families and the inflexibility in service working practices.
X-Factor, which troops making the most sacrifices an extra 14.5 per cent, has always been considered separate to their basic pay – because not all military personnel receive it.
The 2021 report by the government’s pay watchdog the Armed Forces Pay Review Body confirms this practice should continue, arguing that allowances and premium payments ‘should not be included in an employee’s basic pay figure’.
Yet the Ministry of Defence did just that, lowering the number of troops entitled to a pay rise from 43,800 to 35,600 and saving £6.5million. the £250 for low earners was intended to ensure base pay for this group was not eroded by inflation.
Tory former defence minister Mark Francois described the MoD’s decision as ‘utterly mean-spirited’. Labour Armed Forces spokesman Stephen Morgan accused the MoD of ‘conning’ the lowest earning troops. An MoD spokesman said: ‘the X-Factor is a component of the military salary that recognises the special conditions of service experienced by members of the Armed Forces.’ they added that a review will examine how this will be treated in future.
‘Utterly mean-spirited’