{"id":628777,"date":"2026-08-09T15:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/628777\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:18:11","slug":"ireland-should-invest-in-drones-not-fighter-jets-and-ships-says-ex-british-security-official-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/628777\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland should invest in drones, not fighter jets and ships, says ex-British security official \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland<\/a>\u2019s future defence and security needs could be best met by next-generation drones and other high-technology equipment rather than investing in fighter jets, tanks and naval ships, a former British<\/a> security official has said.<\/p>\n

Many European states, including the United Kingdom, face huge legacy issues because they have long invested in military equipment now increasingly threatened by cheap, deadly drones, Paddy McGuinness told the west Cork History Festival.<\/p>\n

However, Ireland could now benefit from the rapid advances in military technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cLate entrants often have an advantage over pioneers. They don\u2019t have to inherit yesterday\u2019s technology and approach,\u201d McGuinness said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t go and buy a tank today myself, I don\u2019t think. Or if I did, I\u2019d buy a second-hand one, saying it\u2019s for a short life, and there\u2019s going to be something else autonomous that comes along.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate in Ireland should not overly focus on the sovereignty issues posed by the never-published agreement between Ireland and the UK that ensures that British military jets would provide air cover in Irish skies to meet threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy experience with the British state is that it does what is in its interest,\u201d the former senior official told the audience, \u201cIt\u2019s in our interest to have some capability over Irish soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGuinness said there were some defence issues to take into consideration when designing the capabilities needed to defend sovereignty, resilience, neutrality in Ireland \u201dfrom scratch”.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it be frigates, fighter aircraft, heavy armour, or would it be autonomous maritime surveillance, drones, AI-enabled intelligence, fibre capability, subsea infrastructure protection,\u201d he told the festival at Inishbeg, near Baltimore in west Cork.<\/p>\n

McGuinness is a former UK deputy national security adviser under David Cameron and Theresa May, with a particular focus on relations with Ireland, who has also served in the UK Foreign Service.<\/p>\n

The \u201cgeography of security has fundamentally changed\u201d in just a few years, McGuinness said. \u201cThe old geography was borders, coastlines, cables potentially, airspace, territorial waters. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new geography is cloud infrastructure, data, artificial intelligence, access to space, undersea cabling, energy, critical infrastructure. Because of that, Ireland has become really significant in a way it has not been previously,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer British deputy national security adviser Paddy McGuinness speaking at the West Cork History Festival at Inishbeg, near Baltimore in west Cork. Photograph: Colman Stephen <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland ranked bottom of Europe\u2019s spying leagueOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The nature of warfare has changed, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a Silicon Valley projection. We see it played out in Ukraine, where unmanned systems at sea, directed by technologies that frankly are available in many high streets, can defeat the Russian Black Sea fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing military threats posed by drones and other technologies gives Ireland the opportunity to make some choices \u201cwhich means you\u2019re not buying legacy systems that immediately slow you down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Military forces facing the new threats are often hindered by traditional loyalties where \u201ceveryone has a cap badge they\u2019re signallers or they\u2019re tankies, or they are artillery, and they feel incredibly loyal to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

States that have long invested in military forces struggle to adapt, said McGuinness, who advised two British prime ministers on intelligence and security issues as the UK\u2019s deputy national security adviser.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How Russian password technology made its way into Irish State agenciesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s future defence and security needs could be best met by next-generation drones and other high-technology equipment rather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[289,79,23935,18,19,17,954],"class_list":["post-628777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-business","tag-common-ground","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-northern-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117066224161790523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}