Former Special Forces commander Al Carns believes Britain is facing war within three years, but isn’t ready for it. The 45-year-old enlisted as a Royal Marine in 1999 before serving five operational tours of Afghanistan.

He states that he came “close to death” four times during his career and was even awarded the Military Cross in 2011 for his “gallant and distinguished service”. He was later appointed a Companion of Distinguished Service Order, his medal being the first to bear the cypher of King Charles when he received it in July last year, and was made an OBE.

Al, now the Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, believes the UK has between “three to five years” to avoid a war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It comes four years after Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The former commando however believes the UK military wouldn’t be in a position to fight the conflict. Speaking to The Times, he said: “When it comes to deterring Russia, we have three to five years before we have to fight a significant confrontation with a major state, a geographically constrained conflict in some shape or form.

“And the reality is, whether we like it or not our military in a lot of cases hasn’t changed from the Eighties and Nineties. We’ve got to move faster, and on everything.”

Al, who spent much of his 24-year military career in the Special Boat Service (SBS) is now minister of state for the armed forces. It was the Ukraine war which turned out to be a pivotal moment for him.

He was called to Whitehall to discuss the changes on the battlefield but, just two days from being promoted to brigadier, decided it was time to step into politics. He feared Ministry of Defence chiefs didn’t “get” how warfare was changing.

He points towards a shift in drone use on the frontline. He explains that one drone now has the same lethality as 22 artillery rounds, and that 87 per cent of all casualties on Ukraine’s frontline come from drones.

He likens the move to drones to a farmer moving from using a scythe to a combine harvester. He said: “The army and the Marines are training a sniper to shoot one round 800 metres, from the point of aim to the point of impact. I could train my son in two weeks to kill you from 45 kilometres away with a fibre optic drone. So have we got the balance right?”

Al says he is pushing “really hard” to move into using drones and autonomous systems. He claims that these autonomous systems can be “overlaid with AI” and that whoever manages to “integrate” drones into fighting will “win the next conflict”.

Al won’t speak about his time in the special forces. He hasn’t revealed what exactly led him to receiving the Military Cross either, describing it simply as “a team event”.

Despite being an MP, he also remains a reservist in the military, recently spending a week in Norway completing Arctic training. Now on the other side of the fence, he wants to use his role as a politician to help serving men and women once they become veterans, admitting he is a fan of “a hand up, not a handout”.

A divorced father of a 22-year-old and with sons aged 10 and 14, Al describes himself as the “perfect example” of where the “state has helped” someone transition from “running around in tracksuit bottoms causing trouble” to becoming a “useful citizen”.