Manchester Airport targeted in secret military exercise against Russian-style attacks

Britain’s defences are being tested in new ways.

One recent operation in the heart of Manchester has revealed just how far authorities are willing to go to prepare for the unseen threats that could strike close to home.

Hidden in plain sight

A top-secret exercise by British troops has quietly tested the nation’s readiness against “Russian-style” sabotage.

Conducted in June but only now revealed, the mission saw plain-clothes commandos from 45 Commando infiltrate security sites across Manchester disguised as foreign operatives.

Codenamed Lightning Manc, the operation formed part of Greater Manchester Police’s counter-espionage programme.

It was designed to expose vulnerabilities in Britain’s critical infrastructure and gauge how easily hostile agents could collect intelligence or disrupt vital systems.

Finding the weak points

The exercise went beyond surveillance.

Commandos simulated sabotage attempts, such as smuggling disguised communications equipment through airport security and setting up covert command centres capable of directing attacks if local networks were compromised.

At one stage, they established a mock command post in a central Manchester hotel to test how quickly security teams could respond if communications were disrupted.

Cyber and communications specialists also staged handovers of fake intelligence packages at Piccadilly station while avoiding police CCTV detection.

Preparing for real threats

A senior military source said the exercise was vital to strengthening home defences.

“Police lack the manpower, and these soldiers can help prepare them to combat real-life threats in mainland Britain,” he said.

“The concerns are real, just look at what happened in Crimea. It was not so long ago that two GRU operatives flew into the UK and tried to murder a former Russian officer and his daughter with Novichok.”

He added that modern warfare is now “as much digital as physical”, pointing to recent cyber-attacks on British firms as evidence that foreign actors are already probing the nation’s weaknesses.

A changing battlefield

Security analyst Justin Crump of Sibylline said the Manchester mission reflected how the responsibility for defending critical infrastructure now falls heavily on local police forces.

“If the Iranian embassy siege of 1980 happened today, it would probably be the police, not the SAS, leading the response,” he said.

Crump warned that Russia remains Britain’s most capable adversary, followed by Iran and China.

“Russia can draw on a wide array of methods, from long-embedded proxies paid £1,000 to destroy a 5G mast to so-called ‘green men’,” he said.

This article is made and published by Kathrine Frich, which may have used AI in the preparation