Major investment into new cyber security barracks

A new cyber security barracks will be built in Gloucestershire as part of the UK's push to protect networks from cyber threats.

The £279m investment for the Duke of Gloucester barracks was officially agreed on Thursday by defence minister Luke Pollard MP.

The army's cyber unit will benefit from new modern accommodation, including 248 single rooms and 30 homes for families and specialist training facilities.

Pollard said it was vital to invest in the army's cyber capabilities, while delivering improved accommodation for the men and women who "keep us safe every single day from cyber attack".

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the investment would create 92 jobs and support the local economy.

Construction at the barracks in South Cerney, where other units are already based, will start in summer 2027, with the project due to be finished by the spring of 2030.

"It's a big investment that will not only support the local economy, with more jobs coming to our construction industry locally," Pollard said.

"But it also will give our people the facilities they need to deter the aggression we see sadly happening more and more frequently against the British Army."

"Every single day the UK is under cyber attack from our adversaries," he said, adding that there had been 90,000 cyber attacks on the UK's military networks in the past two years alone.

The government is investing an extra £5bn this year to modernise the British military.

"We need to move all our armed forces to war fighting readiness, and we're doing so because that deters aggression," Pollard said.

"But if the Prime Minister calls on us to use those forces in conflict, we need to know that they're there, they're ready."

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