The UK faces a spectrum of converging threats; hostile actions by state and non-state adversaries, escalating risks to critical national infrastructure, vulnerabilities within key institutions, climate-driven instability, energy and supply-chain shocks, and the ongoing risk of pandemics and biological crises.
Should issues evolve into emergencies, the military plays an important role in supporting the civil authorities, acting as a surge and specialist provider.
For the armed forces, resilience and preparedness challenges are compounded by the need for efficient cross-services coordination and the reality that incidents rarely occur in isolation: their cascading effects can undermine operational readiness, erode public trust, and strain civil-military support systems.
Narrative wargames are uniquely suited to testing the resilience of military planning.
By immersing participants in scenarios that unfold with second- and third-order consequences, they surface blind spots, challenge assumptions, and generate insights that traditional exercises often overlook.
Crucially, they allow armed forces decision-makers to rehearse joined-up planning and execution with key stakeholders such as civil authorities and infrastructure operators: in the event of an incident, inefficient coordination and the duplication of effort should be avoided at all costs.
In the game, teams might grapple with:
Considering how institutions, supply chains, and military communities can prepare for the cascading impacts and sustained disruption of homeland defence, with the protection of vulnerable groups and maintenance of public confidence in mind
Crises and adversaries will not wait for doctrine to catch up. Wargaming provides armed forces with the opportunity to rehearse critical decisions before they matter most, stress-testing strategies under pressure, strengthening interoperability across command structures and agencies, and reinforcing clarity of responsibility in complex operations.
It also validates guardrails (civil lead, last resort, lawful tasking) and turns lessons into practical changes to training, equipment, and readiness metrics.
The outcome is improved readiness, stronger deterrence, and enhanced resilience, ensuring the military can safeguard national security while adapting to a volatile and uncertain strategic environment.
