Nato forces have taken over a London Tube station to use as their underground HQ as they simulate launching “deep strike” operations on Russia in the event of an attack on a member state.

In a ramping up of preparations for war, the UK-led Nato Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) moved its military capability to a disused platform at Charing Cross station.

As part of Operation Arrcade Strike, soldiers are testing Nato’s capacity to use electronic warfare to jam Russia’s communications and down the Kremlin’s drones in the event of a Russian invasion of a Baltic country.

Defence sources said the UK only has enough drones to fight for a week, using a few hundred a day, which is well below the quantity that is needed. In Ukraine, that amounts to thousands per day in non-stop use, amid continued pleas from generals for Europe’s defence industry to help meet the challenge of a strategic threat.

Speaking from the Tube platform, US general Christopher Donahue, head of Nato’s Land Command, delivered an unvarnished warning to the alliance, saying that Nato has little time to prepare to meet a potential Russian attack.

“Mission-ready by 2030 is not a slogan, it is what we must do,” he said. “Legacy forms of mobilisation and movement are no longer a given Nato advantage, and a lack of protection in depth will be used against us.”

British ARRC commander Lieutenant General Mike Elviss said that the exercise was necessary to rehearse Nato’s “recce-strike” model, which allows it to find and destroy Russian forces heading into battle.

“In this and every scenario we rehearse for, Russia has two critical advantages,” he said. “First, they can mass combat power at the point of their attack, whereas we have an obligation to defend everywhere, all the time.

“Second, if an attack is to happen, it will be launched by them, so they will have the initial momentum. Our answer to this lies, in part, in our concept of fighting by recce-strike.

“Today’s deployment is a mission rehearsal. We rehearse this not just to be good at it, but because the adversary is watching, and we want him to know that we are ready for the challenge.”

Read More: NATO tests ‘deep strike’ from Tube to prepare for Russian attack