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The same is true of "The Portal" in Farnborough, a huge-screened network wargaming room, where defence designers can run simulations to check logistical requirements across a wide range of existing and future operational settings, and against a variety of threats. Fine-tuning these systems to ensure they work in a warzone is critical, especially since even small paramilitary groups have access to digital weaponry. With GPS signal blocking, radio jamming and other interference providing a cheap weapon for insurgents, the effectiveness of the most advanced weapons can rapidly deteriorate. In 2002, the veteran US General Van Riper famously won a net-centric wargame by closing down all electronic communications to avoid eavesdropping and instead deploying motorcycle messengers. Nevertheless, it hasn't deterred anxious governments from increasing research expenditure.

Best of British?

So does the British military remain a world force in the age of cyberwarfare or are our generals still looking wistfully at the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park? Perhaps surprisingly, Britain has quietly built a respectable reputation for its cyberwarfare capabilities, although critics suggest we're hitching a ride on the coattails of our US allies. "UK cyberspace activity is owned and operated by the US, the National Security Agency and the Department of Defense," says Schwartau. "Sorry, but it's true."

Certainly, there are growing similarities between the US approach to military research and the UK's newly launched Defence Technology Strategy (DTS). The UK, with a relative but dwindling wealth of talented scientists, has taken a lead from Darpa (Defense Advanced Research Projects

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Agency), the body that spawned the internet. The DTS aims to better distribute the MOD's £2.6bn R&D budget across a range of areas. Projects such as the Darpa rip-off, Grand Challenge, aim to produce an autonomous or semi-autonomous system designed to detect, identify, monitor and report a comprehensive range of physical threats in a battle zone. The first prototypes could be on display next year.

There are huge projects under way to improve the technology behind infrastructure and weapons guidance systems and maritime navigation, and the MOD says it will harness contacts within academia and industry to try to find military uses for a range of emerging technologies. The ministry is, for example, monitoring and funding research into quantum computing. Why? Because quantum computers can perform huge numbers of parallel calculations that could potentially render current encryption algorithms redundant.

There's also a large commitment to surveillance and sensing. Radio frequency tagging and other tracking systems are being examined, while the concept of a drone intelligence service is also on the rise. Battalions of autonomous self-organised networks of sensors could "take the form of intelligent swarms of unmanned vehicles," the DTS paper states, although officials accept there are significant hurdles to overcome, such as bandwidth availability and power management.

It's popular to dismiss the UK as an anachronism in global affairs, but initiatives such as the DTS show we have at least bought a ticket to the hi-tech party. Since Britain is investing heavily, and has developed technologies that are coveted by powerful allies, the UK gains access to other countries' technology, too. As a QinetiQ spokesperson points out: "Britain's 'peer position' across most of today's key defence technologies is an important part of the country 'punching above its weight', especially in the US, and preserves its access to technology that might otherwise be denied." The sun may have set on the British empire, but the UK is still an international player at the dawn of the cyberwar era.