The military should be deployed to combat cyber attacks, the new head of the army has said.

In his first speech since being appointed to the role, General Mark Carleton-Smith described how the modern battlefield had expanded rapidly, and is "no longer bound by the laws of physics.”

Opening the Land Warfare Conference, hosted by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), General Carleton-Smith added that “revolution is the new evolution” and warned “existential threats occur at the speed of the internet".

The new Chief of the General Staff used his inaugural speech to warn of the growing evidence that the cyber domain is being used to undermine Western societies and democratic processes.

He suggested military forces should be employed as part of a national response to a crisis earlier than they have traditionally been considered, warning: “War and victory are no longer helpful as a lens through which to consider the employment of military force.

“Success will depend on operating across multiple domains, jointly, cross-government and multi-nationally.

“Our ability to manoeuvre in the Information and Cyber domains is already being tested, and will increasingly influence how we will modernise, train and fight our armies into the future.”

Responding to General Carleton-Smith's comments, Lord Hague, a former Foreign Secretary and the current Chairman of RUSI, called for NATO to develop an “Article 5B” to counter hostile action in cyberspace.