Hamish de Bretton-Gordon

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon served 23 years in the British Army, retiring at the rank of colonel after commanding both the UK’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment and NATO’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion. He now works as an adviser to the Union of Syrian Medical Charities and holds a visiting lectureship in disaster management at Bournemouth University.

As a prominent voice on battlefield threats and modern warfare, de Bretton-Gordon has commented publicly on the operational realities of drone warfare — including the disposable nature of frontline autonomous systems — bringing a CBRN and conventional-forces perspective to how unmanned platforms are reshaping combat.