The head of the UK's armed forces hopes to set up a cyber command to both protect the country from online strikes and launch its own attacks.

General Sir David Richards (right), chief of the defence staff, said there would be a “cultural change” in warfare, with the |internet playing a crucial part alongside troops on the battlefield.

He said: “We must learn to defend, delay, attack and manoeuvre in cyberspace, just as we might on the land, sea or air and all at the same time.

“Future war will include a cyber dimension and it could become the dominant form.”

Last week the military chief visited the US cyber command at the Pentagon, which was launched in May last year to |co-ordinate cyberunits set up across the US armed forces.

He added: “In the future I don't think state-to-state warfare will start in the way it did even 10 years ago. It will be cyber or banking attacks — that's how I'd conduct a war if I was running a belligerent state.”